It's a Bet
by Emullz
Summary: Lily and James get into a fight and it results in Lily having to spend a week with the Marauders! The stakes are high, and both sides are determined to win... told from both POVs, with some Sirius thrown in there, because I love him! T for safety!
1. Diffindo Gone Wrong

**A/N: Okay, I know I need to put up more chapters of my other stories, but I wrote this and I just HAD to put it up… so here it is!**

**LilyPOV**

"Sirius!" a blonde girl shrieked, running over to the Gryffindor table, where Black, grinning like one of Hagrid's jack-o-lanterns, started waving her over. That idiot can't have another girl. Who would go for the git? Black moved over slightly to give the- language, Lily- girl some space.

"Diffindo," I could hear Potter mutter, pointing his wand at the steak on his plate.

"So then, the owl tapped my window and I just knew it was Frank!" Alice squealed. I only registered it to groan inwardly- I hate it when Alice gets mushy about her Magical-Law-Enforcement boyfriend. I like Frank, don't get me wrong, but my God, talk about something else!

"Hey, Hailey…" Sirius said, moving over more.

"Oh no, Potter, don't turn, don't turn…" I muttered under my breath.

"Lily? Were you listening?" Marley asked me. I turned to tell her I was when Potter turned to ask Black why he was practically sitting on his lap, trying to make room for this Hailey girl. His wand turned with him, and I gasped as it turned to point at me.

The first thing I registered was the cold. The usual warmth of my hair on the back of my neck was, for some reason, gone. Then I registered the pain, and the wetness of the back of my neck. Marley and Alice jumped up and ran out of the hall. I was too angry to care.

The entire hall was silent as Potter sauntered around to face me and dropped something long and red and vanilla-smelling on my lap.

"Why, might I ask, did you cut off my hair?" I said through clenched teeth. My hand pressed against my neck as James looked anxiously on.

"My hand slipped, and well… I'm sorry." His hand jumped to his hair and ran through it.

"Wonderful, Potter, I forgive you!" I said brightly.

"Really?" He asked in amazement.

"No! I've been growing my hair out since I was five, and you just go and cut it all off, along with a bit of my neck! You've got no idea-"

"Oh, I've got some idea! Like an every-time-you-ever-hexed-me idea!"

"You've got no idea how many girls despise me because you won't stop harassing me!" I swayed a little on my feet.

"Harassing you? D'you know how many guys laugh in my face every time you reject me? Or are just plain mean for the fun of it? Guys are cruel!"

"Oh, I seriously doubt-"

"You wouldn't last one week as me!" James burst out suddenly.

"I can too!" I protested.

"Wanna bet?" James asked, holding out his hand. I reached down to grab it and agree, until I saw it. Covered in red, slick with blood. It took me a moment to remember why it was like that. I had just started to become alarmed when I felt my knees buckle and then everything went black.

**JamesPOV**

"Evans?" I asked slowly as she crumpled. "Evans!"

"Oh, dear," Madame Pomfrey, the new medical witch, said as she walked briskly down the length of the great hall. One wave of her wand and the blood was off the floor and the wide gash on the back of Evans' neck had what looked like several-day-old skin over it. "You there, Potter. Carry her up to the Hospital Wing, I'll need to keep her on bed rest for a little while." I stood up straighter. A chance to carry Evans without looking like a prat. I'll take it.

"No way!" The ever-beautiful Marlene McKinnon called out at the doorway to the Great Hall. Evans's other friend, the one that's dating Longbottom. Alice… Kelly, I think. Yeah, that's right, Alice Kelly.

"We'll do that," McKinnon snarled.

"Cool it, Buttercup," I said, mentally kicking myself. Buttercup? Seriously? "You two couldn't carry her three feet, even if you are on the Quidditch team, McKinnon. She's way too tall for you, you'd only drop her. I've got it."

"Buttercup? You-" Alice gave McKinnon a look, frantically gesturing towards the teachers, who pretended to be interested in their dinner. "-jerk. You just want a chance to get your hands all over her!"

"Maybe he does," Sirius said, sauntering over, having left his blonde conquest to check out McKinnon, probably. "But that really isn't the reason he's carrying her up. The reason is…" Sirius gestured wildly to the entrance hall, where Madame Pomfrey stood, hands on hips. "The medical witch herself! When that woman gets mad, man, she gets _mad_!"

"POTTER!" Madame Pomfrey screeched. "DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO CARRY THAT GIRL UP TO THE HOSPITAL WING?"

"Fine." McKinnon spat. "But we get to come with you."

"Marley, class starts in 3 minutes. We haven't got any reason to be late, and remember, we've got McGonagall." Alice grabbed McKinnon's hand and started towing her out of the Great Hall.

"See you, Marley," Sirius said, waggling his fingers at McKinnon.

"Hey, no goodbye for Kelly?" I asked him. Alice wasn't your traditional beauty, but she was cute, I have to give her that.

"She's taken," Sirius said simply.

"POTTER! WERE YOU LISTENING? I SAID, HOSPITAL WING! _NOW_!"

"Well, isn't she a ball of sunshine," I muttered to Sirius.

"Oh, Prongsie, you haven't seen the worst of it."

**A/N: Okay, I know it isn't exactly shaped up yet, but I PROMISE it gets better next chapter… PROMISE!**

**~Emullz**


	2. Stakes

**I wanted to thank Percabethlover7 for the review! Reviews make my day!**

**JamesPOV:**

I had a cramp in my butt. The chairs in the Hospital Wing are hard. Who would've thought? I mean, the people visiting me look uncomfortable, but I just thought it was just that they were worried about me and my cracked skull, or fractured leg or something. Of course, I've only been in the beds at the Hospital Wing, seeing as I'm the Quidditch player and the people visiting are the fans, so I guess I can't talk for them, but I think my butt just went numb. And Evans is still sleeping. God, why did I decide to cut class just so I can sit here and wait for Evans to wake up already so she can agree to the bet and I can get her to be my girlfriend?

Evans' eyes fluttered open.

"Idiot," she muttered absently as her eyes traveled over me. Ow. That hurt. "Idiot!" she shouted as she started, jumping a little.

"Nice name to call the bloke who carried you all the way up here from the Great Hall," I told her.

"Appropriate name to call the bloke who made me need the Hospital Wing in the first place, idiot," she shot back. "Now, where were we? Oh, yeah. You're on."

"On what?" I asked stupidly. Evans brings out the stupid in me, it's all I can say.

"I'll be a Marauder. Only for a week, mind you." Lily took a deep breath. "I need you to get Black and Remus. And Peter can come if he wants, but I need Remus and Black, mostly. And make sure Black is fully clothed." I jumped up of the chair, shaking my legs to get the feel back into them.

"Your wish is my command." Evans shot me a look. "Okay, jeez, I'll get you what you want."

"Better."

**SiriusPOV:**

James came to get me over to the Hospital Wing while I was in the middle of learning how to fold a paper crane. And those things are HARD, I swear! You have to fold left, fold over, double-cross, yellow Monday, hop-jump-skip. Or at least that's what I thought Remus said. I did it, and it looks more like a ripped up paper with a big "MONDAY" written on it in yellow marker.

But anyways, James ran in, tripped over Peter (who was snoring on the ground) and fell flat on his face.

"Hey buddy!" I called. "It's Padfoot… I'm a ghost! Oooooh!"

"Pads! What is that bottle of Firewhiskey doing next to you!" James barked.

"Cuz I wanted to cut class and it seemed appropriate," I said, taking another swig. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but James wasn't there and Remus was too busy folding things to tell me to stop. "Hey look, a caterpillar! It's gonna turn into a dragon!"

"Oh my God, Pads, how much did you drink?" A lot.

"Only like 2 bottles," I slurred. "Okay, I don't wanna be drunk anymore… can I have the Sobering Draught?"

"No."

"C'mon, Prongsie… pleeeeeeeeease?"

"You're the one who got drunk in the first place." Okay. Only one thing works in this situation.

"HEY LOOKIT MOONY! FULL MOON IN TWO WEEKS! AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS THEN! YOU-"

"Okay! Here!" James said, face red.

"Yaaay!" I said, pouring it into the Firewhiskey bottle. "This way I get sober when I drink! Geddit?"

"That was terrible," James told me. "Alright, Pads, Moony, come on to the Hospital Wing. Evans took the bet and she wants you two up there for some reason. I don't know why, but she said Wormtail can stay and she just wants you two. And mostly Remus. Oh, and Sirius, she wants you fully clothed." I checked myself.

"Oh. Guess I need pants on then." I giggled, taking a gulp at the Firewhiskey. Some of the buzzing in my head went away. Remus threw a wad of denim at me and I giggled again. "Hey, lookit, flying pants!"

"Drink the Draught, Padfoot!" Remus said loudly. I nodded and downed the rest of the Firewhiskey. My head cleared completely and I pulled on the jeans. Remus let out a breath I didn't know he'd been holding.

"Idiot." James said vehemently. "Where'd you even get that?" I opened my mouth to tell him that Rosemerta had traded it for a quick snog, when James cut me off. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Let's just go find Lily."

"So, why are we going up there?" James said nothing. "Prongs? Siriusly, what's going on?"

"One, that isn't funny. It hasn't been funny since First Year. Second, shut it, you drunk idiot." He shoved open the doors to the Hospital Wing, revealing Evans sitting upright in James' jacket, running her fingers through her now-short hair.

"Why are you wearing Prongs' jacket?" Remus asked bluntly.

"It's cold in here, and he left it, the idiot. What else was I supposed to do?" Evans glared at me. "Good, you're all here and not shirtless."

"So I didn't have to put on my pants? God, Prongs, you implied she meant ALL my clothes!" Evans grimaced.

"I took the bet. We need to agree on stakes." Evans took a deep breath. She was pretty, I just hadn't looked at her at all because of the giant crush Prongs had on her. But God, Evans is gorgeous.

"If I win I want you to publicly admit that you're sorry you cut off my hair, then cut off yours just to prove it. And do rounds alone for a week."

"And if I win, you kiss me."

"Daring, Prongs," I said as Evans' eyes widened. "But effective. I say the bet's on."

This is going to be an interesting week.


	3. Fluffy the Flying Unicorn

**LilyPOV:**

"So, the rules are set," Remus said matter-of-factly. "You'll wake up at 4:45 every morning and come to the boys dorms, you have to be in the presence of a Marauder at all times, unless you have Ancient Runes while we have Muggle Studies, in which case you are on your own. Whatever we want to do, you go along with it unless a Marauder agrees to what you want to do and does it with you. You can't tell anyone about what's going on until after the bet, and only what we agree on. It starts tomorrow morning and ends on 10:00 A.M. next Saturday."

"And when Prongs wins we lock them in an enchanted closet that won't let them out until there's at least 2 minutes of snogging," Sirius said gleefully. I shuddered. I'm winning this bet. There's no way I'm not, because I'm not kissing Potter. There's no way that's happening.

"Miss Evans, you may go!" I grinned, getting up slowly. I still had a massive headache from the blood loss of that morning. Who knew neck wounds bled so much?

"Hey, Lily?" F- language, Lily, LANGUAGE! I forgot I have to call the Marauders by first names or nicknames only… and they'd be coming up with one for me too… the horror.

"What… James?" I swear, the entire boys face lit up like a Christmas tree as soon as I called him James. It's like I'm a light switch or something. Maybe if I call him Potter the light'll go off… Potter! James! Potter! James! Imagine the kind of power I'd have…

"LILY! BACK TO EARTH!" I shook myself (mentally, of course, Sirius is the dog in this group).

"Yeah?"

"We're going to the Lake to hang out… and you're coming." Remus smiled, shaking his head. "Apparently we're playing some sort of game…"

Oh no. What game? Don't tell me it's "Let's Watch People Snog James Potter," because I doubt they'd actually play that in real life. Ever. Imagine Sirius and James… ergh. I can't even think about it. Okay, now I'm thinking about Sirius and Peter… Ew. BAD LILY! STOP IT! THE MARAUDERS DON'T SNOG EACH OTHER IN THEIR SPARE TIME… or do they?

"What kind of game?" I found myself asking.

"Oh, Lily-Petal, you'll find out," Sirius said, shaking his head.

"Lily-Petal? Seriously? That's just terrible!" James said, half-laughing.

"So bad it's laughable," Remus added.

"Yeah," Peter said softly, and I started.

"Whoa. When did he get here?" I asked, startled.

"Just now, Tiger-Lily," Sirius said, winking. James groaned. "Lily-Flower? Lily-Billy? Come on, I'm the only one trying here!"

"Let's go, idiot," James sighed. We all made for the door except Sirius.

"Lily-my-love! Loves me! Loves Me Not! Prongsette! Butterflylicious! Fluffy the Flying Unicorn! C'mon, guys, help me out!"

"He's hopeless, isn't he?" I asked James as we strode down the corridor.

"Yeah, I think so," James said, laughing.

We could still hear Sirius shouting from the corridor behind us, running to catch up. "Dolphin tunes! Vinaigrette Lovin' Girl! Sugar Quill! Sugar… Grill! Bush's Great Grillin' Beans! Smeltings! Lady Gaga! That sounds like a name for a band or something… Ooh! I've got it! Caribou Fondue!"

**A/N: What do you think Lily's nickname should be? Butterflylicious? Dolphin Tunes? Puff the Magic Dragon? SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!**


	4. Truth or Dare

**Okay, I wanted to thank ****hpotteralldaybaby**** for giving me a GREAT review… and the other reviewers too! I love you!**

**JamesPOV:**

"Okay, Short-Haired Lily-"

"No."

"-we are going to play a fun game that we like to call… Truth or Dare… Marauder Style. Of course, almost everything we do is better than average, but this game is better than our normal better… so long as we brewed to potion right. There was this one time it was Peter's turn to make it and instead of making us tell the truth, it turned us all orange with green hair, like carrots, and-"

"SIRIUS!" I roared. "You are _so_ ADD!"

"I'm sorry. God. But we each take veritaserum so we have to tell the truth, and you can only pick dare once the entire time. Plus, the game lasts for two days, and the questions start out with spans of 1 minute, then go to an hour after each of us goes five times, and then after each of goes three times for the hour one, it goes to three hour gaps until we finish. So we take this…" Sirius reached inside his cloak and drew out four vials full of clear potion.

"Nicked it out of old Sluggy's store cabinet after that lesson when we had to make it," I said proudly.

"I made that!" Lily said indignantly. "Or Severus did, they were both perfect potions, although Sev's was a little murkier than this…" She peered at the vials intently.

"Hey whoa, hey whoa to the whoa whoa to the hey-hey-hey whoa. To they hey. _Hey whoa,_" Sirius said. I groaned. That boy is so weird. "We refer to the person officially called Severus Snape as either Snape, dumbass, or Snivellus. Take your pick."

"Dumbass," Lily said decisively, wiping her eye. "It's a bug," she said vainly as she caught me watching.

"We only have four bottles," Remus said as he passed them out.

"Prongs and Prongserella-"

"No."

"-Can share one, right Prongs?"

"No way. I'll share with Remus, or even Peter, but not Po- James. Or you, Pad-Puppy or something." Lily grabbed Remus's vial and swallowed a small amount. Lucky.

"Pad-Puppy? She's allowed to call me Pad-Puppy but I can't call her Lily-Luna-"

"No. What does Luna even mean, anyways?" I asked Sirius, who looked dejected.

"I dunno, it sounded cool. I think it means Moon or something. Has a nice ring to it, don't you-"

"No." I grabbed the cork of the veritaserum bottle and pulled it out.

"Bottoms up," Sirius said, grinning. I took a small sip and dumped the rest out in the grass. Sirius, the idiot, dumped it all in his mouth, swished it around for affect, and swallowed loudly.

Git.

"Okay, ORDER TIME!" Sirius shouted. "I want to ask Wormtail, Moony can ask Prongs, and Prongs will ask Ginger-"

"No."

"-and she can ask ME!"

Lily groaned. "Great, I'm the one who has to think up questions for the idiot, and answer questions for the bigger idiot!" Sirius pouted.

"Oh, wait! Pads forgot one rule… you get another dare, but you can trade it in for a question that has to be answered at any time to any person." I grinned.

"You really thought this through," Lily said, frowning. "I don't see any loopholes. Damn you, Remus!" Remus smiled slightly.

"Oh, and the dares go along with charms-"

"Damn you Remus!"

"-so you have to go through with it. And it can't be wimpy, it's gotta be full on." I have to say, Pads is getting a lot better at being interrupted.

"DAMN YOU REMUS!"

"Damn _you_, Carrots!" Sirius protested.

"No."

"Okay, Prongs, truth or dare?" Remus asked, reinstating order.

"I'm not using my dare until I absolutely have to," I said slowly. "So, truth."

"Alright, Prongs. Let's see. What's your favorite thing?" Remus smiled slyly. It was strange, looking at a Sirius face when Remus was the one making it.

"You ask me that every week!" I protested. To be honest, the veritaserum had worn off by then and I could've lied… but that wasn't the spirit of the game. Plus, I'd have to tell Sirius later and then he'd get a free dare and a detention swap he could save, so I was telling the truth.

"Answer it." Sirius leaned forward, glancing at Lily as he did so. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well…"

**LilyPOV:**

"It's Evans."

"Lily," I corrected automatically. It had happened enough times before during class, when McGonagall had demanded we be civil to each other and he insisted on Evans, but this time it wasn't forced. It was- natural, kind of. And unexpected.

"What?" James asked, taken aback.

"My name. It's Lily. Isn't that… part of the bet? That I'm Lily, or… whatever nickname Sirius finally comes up with that makes sense?" James nodded slowly.

"Yeah… sure." His glasses slipped down his nose slightly. _Git, git, git_, I chanted in my head. _Potter, the arrogant git, git, git! He is the idiot of the century, Potter, the git git git! The Prat? Why, it's Prongs! The git? Yes, it's Prongs!_

"LILY!" James shouted. I started. "If you could be anybody else, who would you be?"

I thought for a moment. I hadn't said truth yet, but I was fine with the decision for me. I was about to say Godric Gryffindor when I realized that I wouldn't want to be her. I'd like to be Petunia, and see what things are like from her end. We fell apart, and I want to put it back together again. "My sister," I said simply.

"Why?" James asked.

"One question," I replied. Really, he could have some respect for my privacy, the idiot. "Okay, Pad-Puppy, let's get you a question… why are you such an idiot?"

"Genetics," Sirius replied immediately. "Definitely genetics. Pretty sure it's from my mother, although she isn't really my mother more than the person who gave birth to me… TRUTH OR DARE, PETER PETTIGREW," he roared.

"Um, truth?" Peter squeaked.

"How many women have you kissed, minus your mother?" Sirius grinned evilly.

"Two," Peter said, looking down.

"That's alright, Evans' kissed zero," James said, punching Peter lightly on the shoulder.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure she's got at least one or two hidden deep in her past…" Sirius glanced pointedly at me. I gave him my perfected Evil Eye. He backed away really quickly.

"Truth," Remus said as Peter opened his mouth to ask the question.

"What does it feel like to be a-" Sirius and James coughed loudly, both with hidden words in that sounded suspiciously like "Evans" (James) and "shut you face" (Sirius). "Straight O student?"

"Wonderful…" Remus replied cautiously. Yeah, it does feel kind of nice. "But it's hard work." Tell me about it. "So, Prongs, why Lily?" I heard James groan.

"Everything…" He said slowly.

"WIMPY!" Sirius wailed. "DEATAILES! I WANT THE DETAILES!"

"Okay… smile, hair, laugh, personality, they way she lets me down _nicely_," I winced. Sirius and Remus chuckled. Peter hung on to every word. "Like I said before… everything."

"Alright, Lily," James said, face red, "why your sister… and the name of the sister too please."

"Petunia." I said reluctantly. "I don't like to talk about her." I wanted to stop, but the veritaserum dragged me on. "She thinks I'm a freak for being a witch, and we haven't really talked since I was 11 and she was 12 … she thinks I'm angry at her, but I really just want to keep her from hurting me any further." Sirius looked away, like he was trying not to hear any of it. James looked like he was trying to look like he wasn't listening, and Peter really wasn't listening. Remus looked like he usually did: calm and quiet. "I'd like to be her just to see what it's like from her side, and to get to understand why she still hates me so much. I think it was just that I went off with Sev and she wasn't allowed around because Sev said she was a Muggle and she couldn't come. He was so fascininating at the time, telling me I was special and she was just jealous. And then she started to hate me and he called me that and… now I've lost them both." I took a deep breath. Letting it all out was nice, but to these particular people… no thanks. "Truth or dare?" I asked Sirius, trying to sound nonchalant.

"What?" he asked, dazed, with his brow furrowed.

"Truth or dare?" I asked again.

"Um… truth, I guess." He looked back at me shortly.

"Why Padfoot, Prongs, Moony and Wormtail?"

"Our Patronuses." Sirius looked at Remus fleetingly, then turned back to me. "I'm a dog, and dogs have padded feet. Hence, Padfoot. Remus is an… owl, yeah. An owl. And Peter's a rat, with a tail that looks like a worm. James is a stag-" a STAG? SERIOUSLY? Why? Why is this all happening to me?

"What?" James asked. "Why is that… shocking?"

"I'm a… doe," I let out softly. "Funny, when I think of deer I think of Bambi, but you're not really like Bambi at all-"

"BAMBI!" Sirius shouted. "YES! IT'S PERFECT! I WIN!" James smiled.

"I like it. Bambi then. Okay, let's skip the rest of the questions, I want to get on with a prank of some sort. That involved Slytherin." Oh no. Not this.

"No way," I said quickly.

"Pucker up, Prongs," Sirius said, laughing.

"Okay, fine."

"C'mon, Bambi. Next question's in an hour." James grinned.

"I hate you," I mumbled.

"Love you too, Bambi," Sirius chuckled.


	5. The First

**SiriusPOV:**

Ah, pranking. I could make it a religion if I wanted to, probably. Plenty of hot chicks might follow it because I go to church. And maybe it's a law that the founder of the church snogs with one member a day in the corner… maybe I could get Lily's hot friend McKinnon to come… I'd probably pick her. Okay, I need to run this idea by James, it could seriously work. The Church of Pranking in All Siriusness and James-ism. Siriusness would be the main part, of course, but James-ism can be for all the girls who I've already been with. I doubt they'll snog me again, to be honest. Maybe we can get Lily to come, since she's a Marauder, and she'll have to participate. And kiss James, and then this stupid bet can be off so we can just relax about Moony's Furry Little Problem, and then maybe they'll get together and I'll be able to stop hearing about Lily all the time, and the latest rejection. Although he's stopped asking her out all the time, so I guess he's finally seen sense. Or it's another tactic. Although I'm almost positive the boy's absolutely and totally in love with the girl.

I'm just glad it's only one week instead of two. Or three. Or uno. Whatever number that is. The Spanish people say it all the time, and they even made a Muggle card game out of it, it must be a really high number, I thought.

"Sirius! Could you just pay one second of attention to anything I'm saying?" James said, exasperated.

"I'll bet I could spend _uno_," I said impressively.

"That's one, dimwit," Lily said, flipping her nonexistent hair at me. I don't understand why she won't just grow it back magically. Something about it being moral or whatever. I just find it weird.

"Well sorry," I muttered. Uno is only 1? That's disappointing.

"Okay, so we're going to… well… our prank plan for this week was for the Ravenclaws and their Common Room knocker… so I'm not sure what to do…" Moony ruffled through his papers.

"I'm in the mood for a personal prank," I said slowly. "Like… Snivellus, after Bambi's story earlier. Let's sabotage his perfect potion in class."

"If you want to really get at him, use me," Bambi said abruptly.

"What?" James asked in surprise.

"Me and you. He hates you. I used to have to sit through hours of lectures about how I needed to 'stay away from Potter,' 'steer clear of that big-headed moron,' and such. It got to the point where he'd mention you and I'd make an excuse to leave." Dumbass. Why did he even hate James anyway? It makes no sense, all he did was trip him on the train in First Year, and it wasn't like he actually managed to pull of something great. It was just a stuck-out foot. Juvenile. Stupid. Nothing like the Prongs of now.

"So… we need to catch him in the corridor and… do something Boyfriend-y. Like…" Lily wrinkled her nose. "Come to think of it, let's mess up his potion."

"Nah, I definitely think you should go on with this one," Peter said earnestly. "It sounds great. But get a picture of Snape's face and show it all over school."

"Nice one, Wormtail!" I approved. Peter glowed. Why is it he's in our gang again? Wasn't he eavesdropping on a skip-out session and we had to let him join or something?

"But what could you do that'll make him so angry…" James trailed off.

"Pucker up, Prongs!"

**LilyPOV:**

No. No. No freaking way. The whole reason I'm going along with this is so that I _don_'_t_ have to kiss him! I should just duck out now.

But I don't think I can. It's like I'm in it now, and I can't back out. Even if it means a quick snog with James Potter. Only to him, it'll be all his dreams come true. How wonderful.

"So… he'll be coming around the corner in about a minute. We should… face each other, I guess," James said awkwardly.

"Um, yeah. Sure, I guess," I answered, just as awkward.

"I' m sorry about this. Sirius wants to do it, and his mom just sent him the official disownment letter, and right now I can't say no to him. He doesn't think about it all too much, and he doesn't talk about it. He pretends he's not bothered, but I know he is. This'll cheer him up, sick as that sounds." James looked at me.

"Well, when you put it that way it sounds reasonable. But don't deny you're looking forward to it." I smiled slightly. Wait, what? Evans, what are you doing? Are you… egging him on? What is wrong with the world, you hate Potter! Hate him! With a burning passion, burned deep into your soul… okay, now I'm getting carried away.

"Yeah, but you're not, so I'm not going to enjoy it," James said, eyes at the floor instead of locked on mine like the usually are when he's talking to me. That's why I used to fight with him instead of just walking away. Those hazel eyes, with the twinkle and the anger and the longing they always held. In the beginning it was anger, and then it changed to excitement. Those fights were always exciting, I'll give him that. And somewhere along the way there was a tenderness and a longing added in to the mix.

Oh my God, I'm thinking about James Potter's beautiful- no, UGLY- eyes! What is WRONG with me?

"30 seconds!" Sirius hissed from the closet where he was hiding. I don't know HOW he knows where Severus is or how he plans to get the picture, but apparently he can, since they all seem so confident about this. I'm the only thing that could possibly go wrong. "10 seconds!" Sirius hissed, quieter this time. "Kiss now!"

James leaned in. I leaned in. Our lips met. And Severus walked in.

The only problem? I had no idea what Sev said. I was too busy snogging Potter to care.

Three hours into this, and he has me falling for him. My God, I never should have taken this bet. I could've lived a happy life, and became a Healer and maybe even worked with Dumbledore on something important and gotten my name in the history books and lived in Godrics Hollow with four kids named Timothy and Lavender and Harry and Rose but instead I'm stuck with a crush on an idiot and now he's kissing me and I'm kissing him and-

"Yes!" Sirius crowed. I pulled away. "He was so angry! He was yelling and screaming and you two just kept snogging and he just ran away in the end. I got plenty of pictures!"

"Um…" I said awkwardly, stepping backwards. "I need to use the bathroom… I don't have to go with you guys to use the bathroom, right?"

"No," James said, turning red and trying to suppress a grin. "Just… come to the Common Room afterwards, alright?" I nodded and hurried off. As I ran to the bathroom I heard Sirius say something completely idiotic and insensitive I had to suppress the urge to go back and hex him to next Tuesday.

"Wow, she must really have to go, by the way she's running."

**A/N: Okay, I hope you liked it. Next chapter is the Reveal of the Prank… and Snape's revenge (dun dun dun). I hope the kiss wasn't terrible… I'm not good at that stuff. Sorry.**

**Love it? Hate it?**

**Review it? Please?**

**Question: If you were Lily, what would you do after James kissed you and you felt a little something… ignore it or go after him? Help me!**

**~Emullz**


	6. Picture Making

**I just wanted to thank all the people who reviewed, favorited, or put It's a Bet on Story Alert… you literally made my week!**

**JamesPOV:**

"You are truly an idiot," Remus told me as I sat on his four-poster with my head in my hands.

"I kissed her and she ran off," I moaned. "And then Sirius said the most insensitive thing I've ever heard him say-"

"It wasn't that bad-"

"And she's STILL not back!"

"I'm back."

I looked up quickly, scooting over slightly on the bed. I'm not allowed to let her know I still love her (and don't even tell me love's too strong a word, it's the way I feel). It would complicate everything. And then this entire week would be awkward and then my entire plan would go down in Fiendfyre and then I'll never get Lily and I'll have to get with Lizzie Hannigan. And she's only second best.

"Hey, Bambi," Sirius said, distracted. "Was it really that bad?"

"Oh, from what I heard, it was terrible," Remus said, smiling.

"I heard it too," Lily said casually. "And it was… hard to hear." She smiled. In my direction. Or was it in Remus's direction? All I know is she smiled! And acted civil!

"I was just wondering-"

"Save it, Pad-Puppy," Lily said. "It was awful. Case closed. So what now? Where are those pictures?"

"We were going to enchant them on the ceiling in the great hall with funny captions," I said tiredly. "But the problem is that the potion we develop them in burned off Pete's eyebrows since we're all helpless at potions."

"I've got it," Lily said, glancing at Peter and holding back a laugh. "And who made the potion?"

"That would be yours truly," Sirius said confidently.

"You're an idiot," Lily said, impatiently brushing her short hair behind her ears. I like it better short, to be honest. It's still beautiful and red and fiery but she can't duck behind it or flip it around at me anymore. It's quite an improvement.

"Hand me the lacewing flies and we can get this started. Sirius, I want you to fill this with water. Can you manage that?" Lily opened her bag and pulled out her ever-ready potion making kit. Apparently Healers never know when they may need them.

"So you're actually…"

"Going through with this? Yeah. I'm in it deep now, and I'm not pretending I'm enjoying it, but you guys aren't half bad so far. You only made me play truth or dare for like 5 minutes and then you ditched the game to help a friend. So you don't seem arrogant or big-headed… yet." Lily said, busily stirring the lacewing flies. "And you let me go to the bathroom alone, which I never expected you to do. I thought you'd wait outside the door or something."

"I'm not that much of a prat," I said, smirking. People say my smirk is attractive. Lily is not one of those people.

"When you do that with your face you become that much of a prat. Stop it." She crushed some kind of bean under the flat of her blade. It practically squirted out the juice.

"I can barely get any juice from those wrinkly bean things!" I protested. Remus chuckled.

"They're called Frugar Beans. And yeah, I can barely get any juice out either. You're not alone." Remus looked at Lily pointedly.

"You've got to crush it with the flat of the blade. It releases it better." She dumped in some kind of mushy wiggly stuff, stirred in a figure eight twice, and then finished. "Dump the photographs in here."

"Yes, Miss Bambi," Sirius said, bowing slightly.

"Shut it and stand up straight, idiot," Lily said briskly. "God, I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm doing this."

"I can't believe my eyebrows are gone," Peter piped up mournfully. He touched the space where they used to be. "Those actually looked good. My one good feature. Burned off." We all looked at Peter in surprise. The boy usually just says "yeah," or "cool," or worships the ground we walk on silently. I don't get him. Still don't, not even after seven years, but I love him and he's my friend. I'd probably die for him, if need be.

Wow, James, heroic thoughts. Lily would love those.

"Okay, now we drain the cauldron and wait 3 minutes," Lily said matter-of-factly.

"You really know what to do," Remus said, sounding impressed.

"I experiment," she replied simply.

"I tried that and Peter's eyebrows got blown off. How did you do it without exploding?" Sirius asked skeptically.

"The books are rubbish. I used to work with- Snape- and he and I would finish early and then make up shortcuts. I was mixing Felix Felicis by fourth year." Lily smiled. Remus almost choked on his butterbeer.

"YOU can make FELIX FELICIS!" he spluttered. "So you- you've got some?"

"Well, yeah," Lily said, sounding confused. "I've used it a couple of times, just to get a feel for it. It feels wonderful. But I've only got 5 more vials, since I've started working on a new potion that I think'll help werewolves if I can get a werewolf to test it on. I was thinking of inventing it under a pseudonym, since all I really want is to-"

"Wait, WHAT about werewolves?" Sirius burst out.

"A potion. To keep your mind in a transformation. Into a werewolf, I mean. Not, like, animagi or anything-"

"WHAT?" Sirius roared. Oh my God, Padfoot, SHUT UP!

"Animagi. You know, people into animals…" Lily winked. She knows? She knows. Oh, Jesus. She knows I turn into some kind of deer animal or whatever and run around the grounds with a werewolf that just happens to be my bloodthirsty best friend once a month and put myself in mortal peril.

Damn.

"So then you're inventing a potion?" I asked hurriedly.

"It's not even near done, but yeah. It's why I'm up all night, mostly. I've got a friend with this problem, and I want to help him." Lily looked straight at me when she said this. Either she thinks it's me, or is deliberately avoiding Remus's eye. If she thinks it's me, though, she called me a friend! A friend!

But then again, if it was the former, than she thinks I'm a werewolf. Crap. It's a lose-lose situation. I hate those. I prefer them to be win-lose. That way I know which one to support.

I guess I'm rambling now. That's not good, rambling on and on to myself. Not good at all.

"So now we take them out," Lily explained, reaching her hand right into the cauldron and pulling out the five photographs we'd taken. Or Sirius had taken. "And then I dry them and enlarge them and we get them up on the ceiling, which is _your_ job." She waved her wand and suddenly the picture was dry and large.

"I've got the captions," Sirius said, grinning evilly.

GOOD DAY FROM SNIVELLUS, one of them read. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

"You are so mean," I commented. "'I love you so much?' Where do you come up with this junk?"

"Usually, in the shower," Sirius said seriously. "But for some reason, this was while Bambi was in the bathroom, presumably washing out her mouth." Lily blushed fiercely.

She was washing out her mouth? How rude, I haven't got any diseases or anything. Mum even made me go in and get Muggle vax-ee-na-shuns or whatever they call them! I'm, you know, a healthy person!

"You realize he didn't mean that literally, Pads, right?" Remus clarified. "It was a rhetorical question."

"Let's get these pictures on the ceiling!" Padfoot shouted, swirling his hips in a circle and doing his famous "Happy Dance That I Always Do Right Before I Make Someone's Life Miserable By Way Of Pranking While I Laugh And Point" dance. His exact words.

"Idiot," I heard Lily mutter as she made her way out the door behind Peter.

**LilyPOV:**

I made it out. I made it out without thinking anything… R rated about Potter. I do not like that boy. The kiss made me delusional and ever since I soaped out my mouth I've come to my senses and am now back to- not exactly hating him, but not liking him either. Indifferent. Yeah, I'll go there. If I'm going to spend a week with these morons (well, three big-headed, arrogant idiots and one arrogant intelligent person who just happens to be named Remus and I hinted at the fact that I know he's a werewolf) then I need to get past this hate and actually be okay with some of them. Minus Sirius. He's a jerk.

And an idiot with terrible dancing skills. The hippos in Fantasia were better than he was! Stupid hip rotations… He honestly looks like (and in this case, looks aren't deceiving) a tool.

"They're up there," James said with one final flick of his wand. Why is my face getting hot? My God, Lily, play with your hair or something! Look busy! You hate this boy!

"Dinner's in twenty," Remus said, checking his watch. "We'd better get out and look like we're doing something." Yes. I am NOT, and I repeat, NOT losing my badge over this!

"I can't lose my badge over this," James said quickly. "So yeah, lets get going." He's kidding. Potter CARES about staying Head Boy? I seriously doubt that.

"Coming, Bambi?" Sirius called from the Entrance Hall. I shook myself out of my trance and followed them over to the boy's dorms. There was clothes all over one side of the room. The other side was perfectly fine, however. I opted for the clean side.

"Okay, I'm guessing that side's Sirius and Peter and I'm on Remus and James' side," I said immediately hopping over a nasty pile of socks to land on clean floor.

"Yup," Sirius said, plopping right on the mess of covers on his bed. "Clean things are no fun."

"He asked the House Elves to just freshen up the smell of his side instead of actually cleaning it First Year. They still remember to this day," James said, wrinkling his nose. God he looks so- terrible. He looks disgusting. Ugly. Stupid.

"I'm hungry," Sirius announced. "And don't say I always am, because that would just be stating the obvious," he added as Remus opened his mouth to argue.

"You're only not hungry when you're actually eating," James reasoned.

"Speaking of eating, I'm actually HUNGRY, so can we go eat?" I asked. Sirius sighed as James nodded and got up.

"Thank goodness you listen to SOMEONE when they want food, even if it IS Bambi." He bounded down the stairs and through the portrait hole, whooping.

Here goes nothing.

**A/N: Okay, I'm sorry I didn't put up the actual PEOPLE SEEING the prank… just because I felt like it should end because I wasn't getting anywhere. So sorry about that. Next time I'll get in a Sirius POV. Promise.**


	7. Outside the Bathroom

**LilyPOV:**

I'm walking to my doom. Sev is going to see this and know I was in on it and then he'll hate me and… why do I care? It's SNAPE! I don't even like the boy, for God's sake… it's not like I miss him or anything…

Oh, who am I kidding, I miss him so much sometimes it makes me want to cry.

And here I am walking down to dinner with Potter of all people and I'm going to prank Sev. It just seems backwards. Like the universe is playing a cruel trick on me and it's going to keep on bloody going until- well, until I- I don't really know. All I know is that I'm being forced to spend time with James freaking Potter and it's the universe's fault. And I'm not enjoying it at all.

"When I grow up, I'm gonna marry food," Sirius said joyfully, swinging his arms back and forth. "And then I'll eat it and marry more food. And then I'll eat that and marry more-"

"We get it," James said sharply as Remus rolled his eyes. Peter kept his head down. That boy never says anything. Ever.

"Time to face the music," I muttered, walking quickly into the Great Hall. I couldn't help glancing at the ceiling, and they were still there. Shit. I was hoping they had fallen off or something. The kids already eating in the Great Hall hadn't looked up at them yet… except they had planned for this. Apparently they plan for everything.

"Bloody ass!" Sirius yelled. Bloody ass? Really? Isn't it supposed to be bloody hell? "Look at the pictures of bloody Snape up on the bloody walls!"

"Overuse of the word 'bloody,'" James said, grinning as the Gryffindors whipped their heads up to see who it was this time, and the Slytherins checked fleetingly to make sure it wasn't them. Sev looked up quickly, then his face froze in horror as he glanced upwards. His eyes caught mine and he glared, entire face tomato red. I got up to go, then sat down again quickly. Can't lose this thing. Then I'll have to- I can't lose this bet. I'm just going to have to wait it out.

James glanced at me slowly. "I'm not hungry. I'm going back to the Common Room." He glanced at me, and then clambered over the bench. I did the same, saying nothing.

"Wait- why are you all going?" Sirius asked hurriedly, standing up as well. "It just started, more people'll be coming in!"

I said nothing, just rushed out of the hall as fast as I could, right behind James.

**SiriusPOV:**

It was just starting, and they just up and left! I really had no choice but to follow, something was clearly up. I was just regretting not being able to see the gorgeous Marlene McKinnon do that sway-walk she does into the Great Hall, look up and see "oh my God! I'm seeing myself in a mirror and I'm horrified" (yes, I know, quite descriptive, and genius, might I add) and then laugh a little and finally let me snog her and take her into a broom closet and maybe- God Pads, they're leaving you behind!

So I followed them. Big deal. It was only to see why Bambi was so upset. And yeah, I used a couple of short cuts to get ahead of them and stop them in their tracks, drag them back to the Great Hall and maybe I could still catch McKinnon if I hurry.

"Lily!" I heard a voice yell. Good, I thought, I'm close. I didn't exactly register that the voice wasn't Prongs, but I was distracted. Thoughts of pretty girls that I haven't gotten with yet (ahem- McKinnon) tend to do that to me.

"Lily, wait!" I jogged into view of the scene- Lily waiting outside the boys lavatory, Snivellus yelling from the end of the corridor. Wait- SNIVELLUS? Talking to OUR BAMBI? What is this? This can't be in the rules!

"What do you want?" Lily asked sharply, whirling around to face him, that cropped hair of hers swirling around with her.

"Why? I know you're- with them- now, but did you have to target ME?" Snape asked harshly, coming closer.

"You don't understand," Lily spat. "You never will, you little snake. Just leave me alone, will you?" Harsh, for Bambi. Really harsh.

Snape staggered back a little, then regained himself. He's got guts, I'll give him that. Asshole. "Oh, I think I do. Just because I called you a mudblood, you think you can-"

"Not again," Lily said, stepping closer. "You won't do that to me AGAIN!"

"Well, it's what you are! You're nothing but a filthy little mudblood, thinking she's all perfect because she can take a picture of someone's reaction as she snogs a boy-"

"You don't know the least bit about what that was-"

Snape flung himself at Lily, snogging her full on. He lifted her slender frame off the ground with one arm, keeping her lips on his with the other. Lily responded by kicking his shins, wriggling, anything, really, to get him off of her. She made sounds of protest. Snape kept on going.

And James made his way out of the bathroom. He saw the scene unfolding, Lily kicking and screaming, Snivellus oblivious (good rhyme, Padfoot). He blasted them apart. Lily stood on one side of the hall, screaming obscenities at Snape as he stood, dazed and content.

"YOU STAY OFF OF HER!" James roared at Snivellus, flicking his wand and sending him flying to the wall and sticking there. Lily quieted down, stalking off, me following her, running to catch up.

"Bambi?" I asked cautiously. I've had plenty of dealings with girls, but never like this before. "You… okay?"

"What do you think?" Lily asked sharply.

"Well, you just got kissed by a greaseball, so I'd say you're pretty shaken up. _And_ he was your former friend that you met when you were 11 and pretty much introduced you to this new life that IS your life now and called you a- bad name- and it was the thing that split up your friendship and he called you it again, and now we're back to the snogging. And, to make it worse, they guy who you used to hate but our now stuck with for another 6 days that you kissed less than 3 hours ago just threw him against the wall with magic and looked like he wanted to commit murder. So I'd say you're kind of… confused."

"Way to sum up my life's problems in a single sentence, Sirius," Lily said, chuckling wetly and wiping her eyes with the hem of her robes.

"Well, it was 2," I said, attempting modesty. I'm not very good at it.

"He's just so- bi-polar." Lily said slowly, sitting down. "And now you guys know all about it. Great. Well, we'd better- get back to dinner." She made to stand up.

"I'm not that hungry anymore," I said softly. God, Pads, what's come over you? You NEVER pass up a meal! "Let's just go up to the Common Room and… I dunno, do homework or whatever you think is fun." Lily looked up at me, surprised.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah. Whatever you want." Wow, I'm coming across as really nice, when I think about it.

"You know what I like to do?" Lily smiled slyly. Oh no.

"What?" I asked wearily.

"Talk about boys. Oh, and my feelings." SHIT, PADS, WHAT DID YOU DO?

"


	8. Goodnight Bambi

**JamesPOV:**

I am so going to kill that little snake. He's going to die, it's going to be slow, painful and to be honest he'll wish Voldemort (yeah, I said his name) will have taken him hostage.

He kissed MY Lily. MINE. In capital letters, might I add. I want to make him curse the day his father married his mother. She didn't even want him to, I heard the screaming! I didn't come out because it was nice to hear her yelling at someone else for a change, and I was confused when the noise suddenly stopped and I was so angry all I remember was blasting him against a wall. And then Lily was gone and Padfoot was with her in the Common Room and now I'm standing in the doorway and it's midnight because I searched the entire castle for them, and this is the last place I thought she'd be and I don't want to go in because Pads and Lily are laughing and if I walk in it'll probably ruin it and she'll yell at me and then we'll all just be miserable and I'm so jealous of Sirius right now it hurts.

God, I love that girl so much. And she's oblivious.

I hate my life. I hate it. And I can't stand people who say stupid things like "oh, hate is a strong word, I prefer loving instead!" or "never say never!" You just said never twice, idiots! Besides, I've tried loving someone and look where it's gotten me! Nowhere. So maybe love isn't such a good idea after all. Maybe I should just stop.

But to be honest, I don't think it's that simple. Trying to imagine life where Lily isn't the most beautiful thing I've ever seen is like trying to imagine a life with a midget Hagrid or a shy and humble Sirius. It's just not possible.

I'm walking in. I'm going to walk in like I own the place and I'm going to go straight up to my bed and end this nightmare of a day with a small goodnight to Lily and by dragging Sirius up to the dorm with me to make him talk to me so I'm not alone with all the thoughts spinning in circles in my head for the last couple of hours. He's going to sit and listen to my concerns and just hold it all in while I harp on about pretty much everything going on in my life right now.

And he's going to like it.

Okay, that's a bit drastic. But he'll listen, at least. And then maybe I'll feel better. Just a little bit. Because I don't ever think I'll feel better…

All right, Prongs, too far. You'll feel great when this is over because Sirius will make you laugh as usual, and it'll be something completely ridiculous, and then you'll fall asleep still giggling like a little girl while Peter looks on confused, Remus shakes his head at the idiocy of it all and Sirius keeps laughing even after we're all in a deep sleep.

And that's my typical "feel better, Prongs" night.

I stopped my thoughts when I heard Lily laugh. Best sound I've ever heard.

"Hello Pads, Lily," I said, attempting casual. I was pretty sure I was failing.

Lily stopped laughing and sat up straighter. "Oh, hi James. I was just going off to bed."

"Funny, that's exactly where I was planning on taking Sirius right now," I said quickly. "I've been trying to get him to sleep earlier so he doesn't slap me when he wakes up because he's tired."

"Haven't we established that I'm going to do that no matter when I go to bed?" Sirius asked impatiently, glancing at Lily.

"Am I allowed to turn in?" Lily asked hesitantly.

"Oh. Yeah, we're going to sleep anyways. Remember, 4:45, in our dorm. Remus will definitely be up, I'm a possibility. Sirius and Peter will be out like logs."

"Makes sense," Lily said casually, standing. I grinned, grabbing Sirius by the hair and hauling him up to our dorm as Lily walked quickly up to hers, short hair swishing around her face as she did so.

"Slow down there," Sirius said to me angrily. "SLOW DOWN THERE! HEY WHOA! HEY! WHOA!" I kept hauling him up the stairs. "STOP TOUCHING MY BEAUTIFUL HAIR!"

I tossed him like a sack of potatoes on his bed and I hopped through the maze of dirty clothing to settle on my bed. "So Pads. Does Lily like me?"

"No, Prongs. Never again," Sirius said, picking himself up.

"So she doesn't like me?" I asked, dismayed.

"I was talking about you touching the moneymaker," Sirius said, sounding offended. "Now I have to go brush it, and then I've got to use the straightening charm, and that's a really hard charm, and then-"

"SHUT UP!" I roared, checking the charm we put on the door so no one could ever hear our conversations.

"Oh, shut up yourself! Or should I say it in Spanish? Ready? ¡Soy hoy muy gaseoso, satisfago tan me dejo solo, me siento con su colección del ventilador y como su tacos del hurón!" I took out my wand and did a quick translation spell.

"I am very gassy today, so please leave me alone, sit with your fan collection and eat your ferret tacos?" I asked skeptically. "That makes no sense."

"Have you _met_ Sirius?" Remus asked, standing in the doorway with Peter trailing behind, giggling.

"I was the first one to meet him, thank you very much," I said, pretending to be offended. "And I was the one who helped him come up with the name Snivellus!"

"Well I thought that I was the one who kept you two from getting expelled in Third Year, so if you want me to go tell McGonagall that it wasn't Underburg after all and it was you if you want," Remus said, smiling slyly.

"Oh, that was terrible," Sirius commented, chuckling. "We broke into the Slytherin Common Room."

"And put red hair dye in all of their shampoo bottles," I added on, cracking up.

"And then we put a dancing charm in it so they couldn't stop dancing!" Sirius finished collapsing into hysterics. It doesn't sound funny, but watching them salsa down the hallway was priceless, not to mention that we stole their robes and replaced them with clown clothes. "Even Lily laughed!"

"She really likes you, you know," Remus said seriously to me.

"Yeah, right," I told him, laughing. Peter nodded.

As if.

**Okay, I just wanted to dedicate this chapter to SSofia, .Sarcasm and MOLLY THE MONSTER for being so helpful and just generally friendly about pretty much everything… love you guys :)!**


	9. Yeti Hat

**LilyPOV:**

I know that all things electrical tend to go haywire around Hogwarts, but I finally managed to charm my alarm clock to yell at me five minutes earlier than when I'd need to get up, so then I'll have plenty of EEK moments. And trust me, I've got more than my fair share of those. I swear, it's not even funny how clumsy I can be sometimes. That's why I've never gotten on a broomstick. I swear, those things are alive and intent on chucking me off. I don't know how James gets so much pleasure flying around on that deathstick, but he clearly enjoys it because it's pretty much one of his main topics for conversation.

"GET UP! GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OUT OF THAT BED, MISSY!" My alarm clock yelled. I groaned and rolled over. "GET. UP. OR. ELSE!" I sat up. The last time I ignored that, the consequences were bad. You don't want to know.

"I'm up," I groaned. "I'M UP!" The alarm clock stopped screaming. I sighed in relief, swinging my legs out of my bed and shuffling over to my bathroom like a zombie. I always thought it was weird that wizards have pretty much every mythical being except for zombies. Giants, witches (well, of course), centaurs, unicorns, mermaids! Whatever happened to zombies? There's even leprechauns, and I always thought they were jokes, to be honest. Little men who wear nothing but green and sit at the end of the rainbow, guarding gold? I don't think so.

But seriously, where are the zombies? Hanging out in Bulgaria with the kids from Durmstrang? Because that only makes those kids sketchier. They're already pretty scary, in my opinion.

I stopped shuffling like a zombie (which clearly don't exist) and showered. I then pulled on jeans, the Muggle Ugg boots I get every Christmas from Mum and my dark purple shirt that Sev liked in a shop window a couple years back that I magically enlarge every year so it still fits. I don't understand why wizards buy new robes for their kids when they get too big. Waste of money, if you ask me. Just transfigure the ones you've already got.

So I stuffed my wand into my boot and clomped down the stairs, magically drying my cropped hair and pulling my favorite hat that looks like a snow yeti on. It may only be November, but it's cold. It seems like every year, it gets colder sooner and warmer later. It really sucks, especially since my outside time is limited, what with NEWTS coming up and everything.

The Common Room was empty. Big surprise. It's only, what, 4:40 in the morning? I yawned, stepping heavily, the carpet muffling the sound. I nodded to the House Elf cleaning in the corner. The House Elf smiled back at me, happily fixing the fire. She was one of my favorites, and we were on first name terms, considering all the time I spend in the kitchens catching up on food during study breaks. She makes the best Shepherd Pie in all of Great Britain, if you ask me. But, of course, nobody does, since they think I've never found the kitchens because I'm such a "teachers pet" or whatever they're calling it behind my back. I'm not stupid, I send Marley snooping for me.

The door to the boys dorms was open just a crack, with the sound of snores coming from within. I pushed it open slightly and watched it reveal a fully dressed James and the shower going in the bathroom. Peter had the blankets over his head and Sirius was lying with the covers half off, his bare chest totally exposed.

"Throw a blanket over Sirius," I said flatly. "He's going to get pneumonia and die and then _I_ won't have to deal with him anymore, but I will have to deal with you three going off and crying about it, not to mention the entire female population of Hogwarts. And, to be totally honest, I really don't want to do that."

"What about the male half?" James asked, pulling on a pair of scuffed-up trainers.

"They'll be so happy that they can finally get the girls that they'll be drinking like crazy. And I'll be the only sensible one that's just ignoring it because he was such an idiot beforehand. See how these things go?" I said, plopping down on Remus's neatly made bed. Sitting on James' would just be awkward, since he's done nothing but ask me out and girls just don't casually sit on guys' beds that… this makes no sense. Someone should write a girl code or something of proper reasons we don't do certain things. It would be like a bible for the boys.

"You are _so_ lucky he wasn't awake to hear that," James said, yawning widely.

"If he was awake, I wouldn't have asked you to throw a blanket over him and then this whole conversation wouldn't have started. Come on, James, use some logic here," I said, pulling my yeti hat off and shaking my hair out.

"Yeti hat," James said, surprised. Oh, there's another one to add to the list of fairytale characters aren't real- snow yeti! Shame, I always wanted to shrink a yeti and carry it around… it's probably impossible but it sounds really, really fun. I have no idea why.

"Yes, James, my hat looks like a yeti," I told him patiently. "I got it for Christmas from someone. No idea who, but I thought it was cute, so I kept it."

"I gave you that yeti hat!" James said indignantly. "I put my name on the card and everything!"

"There was no card," I said suspiciously.

"Damn it, Spellotape _never_ works!" James cursed. The shower turned off in the background.

"I hate Spellotape," I grumbled. Petunia refused to use it for a year because she was convinced wizards made it since it was called "_Spell_otape." That brand of tape is forever tainted in my mind.

"That makes perfect sense," James said sarcastically as Remus walked out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel and wearing a perfectly practical long-sleeved T-shirt. James, on the other hand, was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt. He's going to go die of hypothermia, and I won't help him even though I want to be a Healer almost as badly as I want Potter to get out of my life and call off this idiotic bet. Although, yesterday was interesting, what with the prank and the blood loss and the talk with Sirius about everything from why everyone in my family is named after a flower to our favorite brand of socks (I like just any brightly colored socks that I can mismatch, and Sirius prefers regular white socks that fit his gigantic feet) to the reasons why we both hate the color green now (Slytherin. Enough said).

"Spellotape sucks," Remus amended. "Conversation over." I smiled. Oh, God, Evans, wipe that grin right off your face! James might think you're smiling at HIM! That _cannot_ happen. Potter is an arrogant git. Period. End of sentence. I am done talking about it. Shut up, whiny voice in my head! I am not actually smiling at James!

I'm acting schizophrenic. Never a good sign.

"Okay, it's almost 5:00," Remus said as James sat down. "It's time to wake up the zombies." Great, now I'm back on the zombies. WHY DO THEY NOT EXIST?

"Not it!" James and Remus yelled simultaneously.

"Crap," I said angrily. "I hate you all."

"Love you too, babydoll," Sirius said sleepily, throwing off his covers to reveal plaid boxer shorts.

"Shut up and put some clothes on, asshole," I told him, stalking off to Peter's bed and shoving him off. "There. They're both out of bed. Happy?"

"Ow," Peter grumbled from the floor.

"Oh, suck it up," Sirius said, stumbling towards the bathroom. "Liking the socks," he said, winking at me. I glanced down at my feet. Bright pink ducks on one foot, and orange hippogriffs on the other. My best foot ensemble in weeks.

"I think her yeti hat is better," James said pointedly.

"Oh, man, that was a cool hat! I was so jealous when you gave it to Bambi instead of me," Sirius said mournfully. "I miss that yeti hat."

"We all do, Pads," Remus said, chuckling. "Especially since you cried when Prongs gave it to Lily."

"I did not!" Sirius said, offended.

"It doesn't matter because it's my yeti hat now," I said, pulling it back on. "MY YETI HAT."

Sirius glared. Remus started cracking up in the corner as James tried to hold back a laugh.

"So what should we do today?" James asked quickly as Sirius turned the glare around to Remus.

"No idea," Remus said, glaring back at Sirius now. I honestly thought Remus was more mature than that.

"How about homework?" I asked, somewhat hopefully. I had a potions essay due and I needed to get an E or higher if I wanted to get an O for this semester.

Everyone stared at me like I was crazy or something.

**SiriusPOV:**

Bambi has mental health problems. You NEVER do homework on weekends. You get a hot Ravenclaw chic to do it for you the day before it's due for a quick run in a closet. Homework is not something you suggest doing. EVER. It is a last resort activity reserved for when the world ends in 2012 and you're stuck in hell for all eternity.

Period.

"You're an idiot," I said into the silence. "A complete and utter idiot."

"No one else was coming up with anything," Lily said defensively.

"No. Don't even try to go all wounded on me. That, my dear Bambi, was the most idiotic and stupid and just completely brainless thing I have EVER heard you say. We do not, and I repeat, DO NOT, do homework when we can do something else." I grabbed a sweatshirt from a pile on the floor and pulled it over my head.

"Well, its Sunday," James said. "We could go flying."

"Too cold," Remus said automatically.

"Isn't Sunday, like, the holy day or whatever?" I asked. "So we could go to, I don't know church. For wizards. That are Christian, I guess. Christian Wizard Church."

"Man, I'm Jewish," Remus said. James and Lily cracked up.

"So what do we do?" I asked angrily. "I'm the only one trying here!" Lily cleared her throat. "Bambi's idea was so stupid it doesn't count," I amended.

"Let's just think for a little while," Remus said slowly. "We could go see Hagrid."

"I'm not eating rock cakes for breakfast," I said immediately. "Not gonna happen. But speaking of breakfast, I'm hungry."

"No." James said automatically. "We could look for thestrals?"

"I'm HUNGRY!" I said, louder. I was ignored. The nerve of some people.

"We could prank someone," Peter piped up.

"No," James said, glancing at Bambi. Man, he is _whipped_.

"HUNGRY!" I shouted.

"How about we eat breakfast?" Remus said quickly, rising. "Because I think Sirius might pop if we don't-"

"GET ME FOOD!" I bellowed, standing up. When they don't listen, just scream. It works every time.

"Yeah, sure, I'm definitely okay with that," Bambi said, standing up as well. I glared.

"I miss the yeti hat," I grumbled as Bambi started out the door.

"Shut up and walk," she said sharply.

"Yeti hat."

**My friend actually bought a yeti hat, and I was really jealous. Like, REALLY jealous. But I loved the idea of a yeti hat and threw it in here, and then I thought Sirius might be jealous and it all just snowballed from there. **

**IDEA FOR A BET FROM ScarlettSunshine! **

**Dedication for this chapter- .Sarcasm, Maya and Mia (for the patience it took to listen to me go on and on about Christian Wizard Church and what it might be like if they ACTUALLY went! Love you guys!) =)**


	10. There Are Giants Dancing On My Legs

**Okay- I really appreciate all you followers and reviewers of It's a Bet out there, and just to name a few- Shroom, who I keep trying to dedicate stuff to (.Sarcasm) but it just keeps coming out as .Sarcasm- watch it happen again (love you shroom!), Percabethlover7, hpotteralldaybaby (you came up with Bambi and it is the best nickname EVER), iamnumbernine, Anoleflash, skaterofthebooks, Ssofia (and yes, I gave you another shoutout =) ChocolateMilkLOL, and .113 (that might come out weird too… Lily Evans 113 just to clarify). You guys have been so nice with the feedback and everything… oh man I can't express my appreciation for you. CHAPTER 10 Y'ALL! YESSSS! **

**Okay. I'm going to start the actual chapter now. 121 words wasted (as of the 121- it's actually 141 words, but let's just leave it at 121, shall we?) :P **

**Okay just a quick note- I had it as ) :P up there, you see it? Spellcheck wanted it to be :( P. How pessimistic is that? (and how stupid is spellcheck?) Okay guys we're up to 191 words, but I'm gonna stick with 121. Kapishe? Kapishe. THE CHAPTER BEGINS!**

**SiriusPOV:**

The House Elves were all sleepy and yawny and I was disappointed. When I want a stack of pancakes 20 flapjacks high, I don't want them made by a sleepy elf! Then they might fall over, or not be buttered properly, or- there's a whole list of reasons why that is not acceptable. So I proposed we waited until they weren't sleepy so I got what I wanted, and I screamed again, so they gave in.

And that's why it is now officially 8:00 in the morning and we are just finishing our breakfast after we fell asleep on the table for 3 hours.

The best part of the day, wasted by those sleepy House Elves. They need some kind of Non-Drowsy Claritin or something, because I spent 3 extra hours sleeping and now I need to do my hair again.

Then again, maybe I'll work the bedhead look today. I hear girls love that, and it is my last year to at least manage to snog every girl over 13 in the castle. I refuse to snog anyone under 13, and I refuse to go into a closet with any girl under 15. I do have morals, contrary to appearances. And only really hot Slytherins are allowed. And they're not allowed to be touched by Regulus, because that's just gross. Thankfully, Regulus doesn't get out much, so I'm good, mostly. I just need to keep my hands off Andromeda Black, apparently. I hear she's quite the kisser. It's a shame that she had to have bad taste and go off human scum then. And, you know, a shame she's our first cousin, since I probably wouldn't have touched her anyways. She's the only non-corrupted one.

"Let's go outside," Remus suggested, looking a little green. His plate was still half full! That boy must be anorexic or something, because if you can't manage to hold down 15 pancakes, you need serious help.

"Good idea," I said cheerfully. I wanted to bet James that he couldn't take a ride on the Giant Squid and then watch him try and get on it. It was gonna be pathetic.

Bambi started to clear the plates. "What are you, crazy?" I asked her incredulously. "The House Elves do that for you! It's what they're here for!"

"Well I thought they might need help," she said, sounding wounded.

"You don't help House Elves," I amended. "They get insulted." And take all your underwear, I added in my head. Kreacher is the worst House Elf ever in the History of House Elves. I'm not kidding. He's like my Mum without anti-depressant spells. Which is the most sad, ugly thing you can ever imagine. I hate him so much.

"Yeah, they like to be thanked and told how good they are at stuff," James recommended. He's got four, so I'd go with his suggestions. I do, but Kreacher's in a league of his own. Like the American Football league, over in the United States. Barbaric sport, really. I don't get how it can even be legal.

"What, you've got one?" Lily asked. "I mean, they work for you?"

"Um, yeah," James said, putting his hands in his pockets. Money's a real sore spot for him, seeing as he's got so much of it and he feels awkward. I've got a lot but I'm not allowed to use it, so it's not that bad for me.

"Oh. Well then I'll just leave them here…" Lily trailed off. I nodded and smacked Peter. Fell asleep again. Stupid kid. Needs to wake up and smell the flobberworms. And flobberworms aren't the first things you want to smell in the morning, and I speak from experience. They smell like centaur dung wrapped in gym shorts, then soaked in liquefied Garroting Gas. You don't want to know.

Remus got up and started walking towards the doorway, followed by Bambi, anxiously glancing back at the plates we'd left on the table. I grabbed James and made for the door, leaving Pete on the bench, still rubbing his shoulder. It wasn't that hard a slap, honestly. I've done worse to my own face when I get caught by Filch. Which isn't often, thank God.

"The usual spot?" I asked James, meaning the beech tree we reserved by the lake.

"Yeah. Why not?" he asked, falling behind. That or I was pulling ahead. Maybe a combination of both. But people do say I walk fast…

"Well, that thing with Snape was there," I said.

"Nah, we've already been there, remember? She didn't care, did she?" James said, quickening his pace.

"Yeah, truth or dare," I remembered. "We never finished that."

"I don't want to, really," James said, catching up with me. We walked in silence for a moment, side by side. For me, silence is very uncomfortable, so I turned to James and smiled.

"Race you!" I shouted, sprinting up the stairs. James raced behind me.

Ah, just like old times.

**JamesPOV:**

Sirius and I collapsed under the beech tree, panting, having passed Remus and Lily a while back, down by the Great Hall. I felt like an eleven year old.

"I beat you," Sirius boasted, only adding to the mood. "Guess I'm just better than you. You would've thought the best Seeker Gryffindor's ever seen could beat an average Beater- although I would say that he's pretty amazing off the field as well-"

"Oh, what are you going on about now?" Lily asked. My heart nearly stopped. She was wearing the hat _I_ gave her as a gift, and I don't think she'll ever look more beautiful. Of course, I think that every day, and the next day she proves me wrong.

"I beat Prongs in a race here," Sirius said proudly.

"So that's why you were running about like idiots," Lily said, plopping down beside in between Sirius and I.

"Not like idiots," I corrected. "Like First Years, which Sirius still is in levels of maturity."

"I could say the same for you," Lily told me, half smiling, as Remus sat down next to me.

"Nah, he's a Third Year in maturity," Remus said, grinning. "And Sirius is a nine year old. I worked this out ages ago. They'll never change."

"That I'll believe," Lily said, folding her legs underneath her.

"Believe what, that you're a filthy little Mudblood?" a voice asked maliciously from behind me. I stood up and whirled around, seeing Mulciber and Avery standing with Snape a few paces behind. Lily flushed as she glanced at him, then her face hardened to anger.

"You," she spat, turning her back. Mulciber raised his wand, ready to jinx her. All thoughts flew from my mind as my wand sped up to my hand and I raised it as fast as lightning to point straight between Mulciber's eyes.

"You don't want to do that," I growled, stepping in front of Lily. Sirius raised his wand and turned to face Avery. Regulus and Lestrange materialized out of nowhere, Regulus deliberately avoiding Sirius' gaze. Remus stepped beside me, facing Regulus.

"Oh, don't I?" Mulciber asked quietly, the grin sliding off his face. "What do you want with it? Keep it as a pet? I don't even think Mudbloods are worth that."

I didn't even have time to get properly appalled and angry, I just shot a stunning spell at him. He threw up a shield charm and sent back a curse I'd never seen performed before. It hit the shield charm I'd set up and shattered it, sending magical shards of hard air spinning around the lake.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Remus shouted. Just like Remus too, not trying to hurt anyone.

But as soon as Remus shot out a spell, all hell broke loose. Lily drew her wand and shot a nonverbal curse at Lestrange, binding him from head to toe in black ropes. Sirius was flooring Avery, managing to Stun him as I watched, forgetting all about Mulciber. I only remembered when the pain hit.

It was like a million wasps dive-bombing my face, white-hot knives digging into my torso and arms as giants stepped on my legs, dancing and stomping and jumping. In other words, it was the most pain I had ever experienced, and the only thing I could do to control the screaming was to literally bite my own tongue.

The pain stopped and it took every ounce of strength I had to pull myself off the ground and up to my feet. Sirius was wrestling with Mulciber on the ground. I swayed a little, the pain still excruciating even though Mulciber had stopped with the curse.

Snape stepped in for Regulus and began dueling Remus. Regulus stepped forward and did the worst thing I'd ever seen in my life.

"CRUCIO!" he yelled, pointing his wand at Lily. The curse hit and she shrieked in pain, writhing on the ground. I dropped my wand in anger, and tackled him full on, all previous pain forgotten. He hit the ground hard, and Lily stopped screaming and slowly lifted her head up. Remus managed to finish off Snape and he Stunned Regulus for me. I got up and ran over to Lily.

"You all right?" I asked her breathlessly as Sirius subdued Mulciber.

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked me weakly. "Mulciber had _you_ under that foul curse for almost 5 minutes!"

"I'm fine," I said quickly, "but the question is, are _you_?"

"Yeah," she answered, sitting up. "Thanks for tackling him. You'd make a good rugby player." I smiled.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" McGonagall's voice rang out from the Entrance Hall. Peter walked out behind her, grinning at the sight of the invalidated Slytherins.

"Oh, damn," Sirius swore.

And for once, he was being completely rational.

**A/N: Got a little intense there. And yeah, the curse was Crucio, and no, James would never have known what it was because he didn't care about class and he never would've learned how to use it… so there.**

**Question: what kind of detention should McGonagall give them?**


	11. Mood Swings

**I am SOOOO sorry I didn't update faster, I just got caught up with Thanksgiving and this crazy math homework… you know, the regular excuses. Sorry!**

**LilyPOV: **

McGonagall's office is a whole lot scarier when you're in it because you're in trouble. Damn, crap shit- oh my God, Lily, pull yourself together!

"I could strip you of your badges for this, Miss Evan and Mr. Potter," McGonagall said briskly.

I think I have a legal right to panic now.

"What?" James said, sitting up. He only likes being Head Boy because the bathroom he gets to use has a bigger mirror. Wait, what? Lily, my God, the panic has gone to your head! You're done insulting him in your head; you have to save them all up in case he ever yells at you!

"Um, that doesn't exactly pertain to me," Sirius said, leaning back in his chair. Git.

"The detentions I'm about to give out will directly _pertain_ to you, Black." McGonagall leaned forward, placing her palms on Sirius' desk. "Clean the bathrooms. No magic."

"But-" Sirius started.

"_And_, you're organizing Potion ingredients with Professor Slughorn at eight." I breathed a sigh of relief. Slughorn loves me, and the way Petunia leaves the bathrooms at home- well, you could call me a pro and that would probably be an understatement.

"Professor, they hit Lily and James with-" Remus started rationally, but James cut him off.

"Bat-Bogey Hexes, nothing major. We'll do as much as we can to make sure we keep our badges and try to make it up to Gryffindor House," James said quickly. "May we go now?"

"Go clean the bathrooms, Potter. I mean for this to take up the rest of your weekend." McGonagall shooed out the Marauders, and stopped me just as I was about to leave. "I thought you were better than this, Miss Evans," she told me. I hung my head and walked out the door to find Sirius waiting with his back to me, with Remus and James down the hall. I watched as they turned the corner, waiting for Sirius to turn around.

"Hey, Lily," he said casually, hand in his pockets. I brushed my hair back from my face.

"Hi Sirius," I told him, sighing. "You couldn't just let them walk away, could you?"

"Did you hear what they said?" Sirius asked incredulously. I looked at him, puzzled. "I mean, it's only been one day, I know that. But you- well, I feel like I've known you for forever. Which I have, you've just always hated my guts-"

"Yeah, I get it. Get to the end," I told him, trying to keep the smile from showing.

"Well, I couldn't let them say those things about you. You're… worth more," Sirius said, turning red. "I mean, it's just- they're so- I like you. Not in that way."

"I know," I assured him. "And I feel the same way. What's it been, one day? And this is already all friendly?"

"Yeah. God, James was right about you." I narrowed my eyes. Why would James be talking about me other than to brag about how foolish he made me look in front of everyone?

"Why would James be talking about me?" Sirius looked down.

"He wasn't," he said, backing up against the wall. I've never seen him seem so guilty of what he said. He always acts like it was the perfect thing to say at the perfect moment.

"Sirius," I growled. He said nothing. "Fine. I'm going to ask James," I said, and flounced off.

"Slow down there!" Sirius yelled, running down the hall after me. I pulled my wand out of my boot and leg-locked him. He toppled over as I strode down the hall. Sirius' yells rang down the halls.

"WAIT! I DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING! I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!"

"To hell you didn't," I muttered. It's his own fault.

**JamesPOV:**

"You want to wait for Lily?" I asked Remus, hoping he would say no. I didn't bother to ask Sirius, knowing he would say no.

"Actually, I'll wait," Sirius said. Lily was inside getting structured by McGonagall. Funny thing was, I didn't feel bad at all. Those sons of bitches deserved every hex they got and more.

"Okay," Remus said, pulling me down the hall. What's going down the hall with Lily and Sirius? I voiced my concerns to Remus. He thought for a while, and finally spoke when we turned corner.

"I heard a part of their conversation last night," he said in that slow, understanding voice of his. Peter was back up in the dorm, not having been a part of the duel. "It was about the most random things, and from what I saw… there was no romance in it at all." I sighed in relief. Sirius knows how much she means to me. I don't think I'd ever forgive him if he screwed around with her.

"James!" I heard Lily call from behind me. I turned around and my heart nearly stopped.

"Yeah," I asked, somewhat breathless.

"Oh, put your tongue back in your mouth and listen to me," she snapped. I closed my mouth, surprised that it had dropped open in the first place. "Sirius let slip you were talking to him about _me_. I want to know what you said, and how you said it. Now. Spill."

"I told him you rejected me," I said slowly.

"That's not what you said," Lily said sharply. "I want to know and I want to know now." She pushed her hair away from her face, but the short strands fell back into her eyes.

"Grow your hair back and I'll do it," I said suddenly. Remus looked at me incredulously. I know I said I liked it better, and she looks beautiful either way, but I miss it.

"I've told you I won't grow it back by magic," Lily shouted. "I don't expect you to understand why-"

"Well I don't expect you to understand what I said to Sirius and Remus and Peter!" I bellowed. "So don't go asking around about things you won't understand. And if you really want to know, you might try asking _nicely_."

"You're talking to me about _nice_?" Lily screeched. "'Hey, Evans, go on a date with me, I know you want me soooo bad! People do tell me I'm quite good in bed!' You call that _nice_?"

"I've never said that!" I protested, my voice going down in volume as I realized I had said exactly that.

"Yes you have and I don't want you going round telling people things about me that you can't even say to my face!" she yelled.

"Well, I'm almost positive he told me you're sexy when you're angry more than once, because you sure as hell are," Sirius said, rolling in on the floor like a log and propping his head up with his elbows. Remus and I burst out laughing.

"Oh, _you_ stay out of it!" Lily screamed. "With your fancy hair products and your lines of girls you like to herd into closets before you even know their _names!_ My God, I thought you people weren't so bad, the way you stood up for me outside, but I guess I just forgot what complete _assholes_ you can be sometimes!" Lily started to walk off, then turned around and grabbed Remus by the arm. "I am _so _not kissing your slimy mouth," she fumed, then walked off, Remus in tow, straight into the girls lavatory.

"Remus is in for a treat," Sirius said, still on the ground. He rolled closer to me. "There's some pretty nice stuff written about me on the walls in there."

**I know Lily seemed overly cranky, but you know how girls get around once a month… so yeah, that's my excuse. I needed some drama. If you want to know what James said, you just have to wait until the next chapter, people!**


	12. Red and Gold Painting

**LilyPOV: **

"Oh my God," I sighed, sinking down to the floor. "What did I just do?"

"Well, it seemed to me like you asked James a question, he didn't answer, and you flew off the handle," Remus said quietly, standing by the door.

"I still want to know the answer," I said childishly, resting my head on my hands.

"You know the answer," Remus said, sounding like one of those "Fortune-Tellers" that you pay money and just hear Fortune Cookie bullshit.

"I really don't," I said, pulling out my wand and waving it in circles, the way I did when I didn't have a wand and had to use a stick from outside, and I could only imagine making sparks come out of it. That was back when I had Petunia and Severus, and no Potter to complicate things. When I thought that everything was going to get better, instead of it all going to hell. I can't believe I thought it wasn't going to be complicated. Shows you how smart I was…

"We have to go clean the bathroom…" Remus trailed off after a while of me stuck in flashback-land. I sent real sparks from my wand, nearly setting his pants on fire. I wiped the tears away from my eyes, surprised they were there. I thought I was over crying about Sev and Petunia. No. I AM done crying about them, or thinking about them.

"Yeah, I guess we do," I said, standing up. Surprising him and myself, I gave Remus a hug. "I was a bitch. And it was awkward, and weird, and I was all snappy, and I don't understand what came over me. I just don't like people talking about me, Petunia and Sev- well, it brings back bad memories."

"I get it," Remus said, squeezing back. I tugged on the strings coming off my hat, pacing.

"James and Sirius are going to hate me, and then they'll make this whole bet thing a million times harder, and then I'll lose-" I stopped dead. Would losing really be so bad? Yes. Yes it would. "And then I've got to go in a broom closet with Po- James."

"Would that be so bad?" I swear, Remus is a mind reader.

"Yes." I said. "Yes, it would."

**JamesPOV:**

I pressed my ear against the bathroom door harder, trying to hear what Remus was saying. "Damn you, Remus!" Sirius hissed from next to me. "Speak up!"

"Shut your face!" I snarled at Sirius, smacking him across the shoulder. I strained to hear Remus, and just barely managed to hear him ask if losing the bet would be that bad.

"Yes," I heard Lily say. "Yes it would." And, strangely enough, that boosted me more than anything. She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than Remus. She wasn't sure. If I could only get her to fall for me. What should I do next…

"Here, I'll open the door for you!" I heard Remus say loudly.

"Move!" I snapped at Sirius, scuttling away from the bathroom door and bolting down the hall to the bathroom I was supposed to be cleaning for the last half hour. I sprayed water all over with my wand, trying to clean but finding I couldn't. I grabbed the soap and sprayed it everywhere, getting down on my hands and knees. Sirius tossed me a sponge. Luckily we've had years of practice looking busy. I tossed a bucket of water at him and made it look like we were having a water fight.

Ah, the look of immature casualness. And everyone seems to eat it right up.

"You were supposed to be cleaning!" Lily said, sounding surprised. She blushed and ducked her head. Damn, she's gorgeous. No, James. Focus.

"We kind of were… the floor's clean?" I said, pretending as if nothing had happened and she hadn't just screamed at me and insulted my best friend… which, honestly, I'm not that mad about.

"Well, you're supposed to start with the toilets, because they need to sit for a little," Lily said, wrapping her hair up rag she transfigured into a bandana. "It's too short to put up," she told me coldly, a hint of a smile showing through.

"Cold," Sirius whispered. He didn't see the smile? Was I the only one?

"Then you rub down the sinks and wash down the showers by dancing with brushes on your feet," Lily finished. I grinned.

"Dancing with brushes on your feet?" Sirius asked, chuckling.

"Fine. You do the showers." Lily stalked over and poured some kind of liquid into the toilets.

"We shouldn't even be here," Sirius grumbled.

"What are you grumbling about?" I asked sharply.

"They used Cruciatus! On you and Lily! Those are Unforgivable!" Sirius protested, angrily dumping soap into the shower.

"I don't want to be a tattletale. They'd go to _Azkaban_, they aren't that bad to deserve the Dementors! Plus, we don't even know if it was Crucio, it could've just been a nerve stimulation curse or something." I almost told him that his own brother would've been handed over to the Ministry, but it just would've made Sirius more upset. He _was_ a little quiet…

"I don't want to tell either," Lily said decisively. She kept her back to me, scrubbing with some sort of brush. I rubbed halfheartedly at the floor with my sponge. The silence settled down on the group as Lily speed-cleaned around the room. I kind of scrubbed the same spot over and over, and Sirius stood leaning by the door, his hands in his pockets. He had on his Don't Talk To Me I'm Angry And Trying To Rock The Sexy Brooding Look But To Be Honest I've Got Some Problems And I Need To Work Over What To Do So Just Admire Me From Over There And Come Flirt With Me Later. He patented it.

"Done!" Lily said triumphantly, stepping back to reveal a shiny clean (albeit a little wet) bathroom.

"Oh, good, I can leave now," Sirius said, bolting out of the door.

"Um, I'd better-" I started.

"Well, run after him!" Lily told me, looking after him with a concerned look on her face.

I took off behind him, sprinting. At least Quidditch workouts of good for something, considering I overtook him within seconds. "Hey, man! What's the running for?"

"Go away," Sirius said. "I don't want to talk to you." He yanked his arm out of my grasp and tried to keep walking.

"No!" I told him. "I want to know what's going on!"

"I want him to go to Azkaban for joining him!" Sirius bellowed. "Okay? I want him to go over to the Dementors and have to suffer, for doing this to me, turning my own parents against me!" A tear spilled out of one eye. I waited silently. You have to wait until he's done, or else he'll never get it out.

"I know I say I hate them, but doesn't every kid want their parents to like them? And Regulus was the _good_ boy, the _right _boy! I was the deformed one! And I _hate_ him for it! I spent an entire year when I was six running tests on myself to see what was wrong with me, why my parents gave the younger brother twice as much attention, and praise, and _everything_ except shit! I got all the anger, and he got all the love, and the praise! I just want to curse him, them, and the rest of the pureblood world into oblivion for screwing me up! I mean, look at me! Even Lily thinks all I do is screw around with girls and try and make myself look pretty! I'm a screw up, and screw up who wants his own brother to go to jail and have all the happiness sucked out of him! I almost tried to talk to him, and work it out, but then the bastard went and cursed my best friend and this amazing girl that I've just gotten to know but I think is amazing, and he tortured them right in front of me and I couldn't do anything to stop it fast enough, and you all got hurt and I'm not supposed to worry you like this when it's all my parental problems because my parents are prats that ruined me!" Sirius stood with his arms at his sides. He put his head down.

I did the only thing I could think of. I wrapped him up in a hug. A real, live, regular hug. And I really think it helped. "Listen, Pads. Every kid's got a picture, a work of art. And so what if yours is red and gold? And maybe your dad put a little tear in it, it's still Pads, and he's still amazing. Not because of that, in _spite_ of it."

"That was so corny," Sirius told me, his face muffled from my shirt.

"Yeah," I told him. "Yeah, I guess it kinda was."

"It helped."

"I'm glad I could help." I pulled away. "God, you really are a son of a bitch."

"No, I was officially disowned, remember?" Sirius told me, a trace of a smile on his face. That's what I like about him. He doesn't stay on one thing for long. I think it's the ADD.

Of course, I like him for a lot more than that, but that's what drew me to him in First Year.

"I love you, man." I told him, walking back towards the hallway. As I opened the door to go back in, I could've sworn I heard a laugh.

**I swear, I think I might be delirious. WINTER BREAK BABY! (I wrote Spring break, then realized I was pushing it…) **

**That was just a big ball of fluff. To much fluff. I'm sorry. **

**Well, I have to go. It's late. Like, almost early Saturday morning early. And I feel like I might fall asleep on the keyboard.**

**But if you review, I will honor you with a statue or a poem (and if I have time, I might just dedicate a oneshot to you!) SO REVIEW! Press the button… you know you want too!**


	13. FootsyWootsy

**LilyPOV:**

Sirius came back slowly; walking with his head hung somewhat and a small smile playing on his lips. James looked stricken. Only one thing could've happened.

Sirius was upset about his family, Regulus in particular, James comforted him but then felt guilty because his life seemed like a cakewalk next to Sirius'. Lily Evans, mind reader extraordinaire.

I also saw the look on Sirius' face when Regulus cursed James and his left sleeve slid back. It wasn't hard to piece it together, after pairing it with the look Sirius had on his face while I was cleaning the bathroom. What can I say; he wears his heart on his sleeve. At least, I think that's the expression. I need to read more Muggle books.

"We get about three hours before we have to clean out the potions room," I heard Remus call while he washed his hands in the sink.

"I'm not feeling so good, man. I think I might _lie down_," Sirius said loudly. My eyebrows came together. What did he think I was, an idiot? I got 12 OWLS and 11 Outstandings. I don't mean to brag, but I'm a pretty smart girl. I know that they're going to do something funny.

"That doesn't sound like too bad an idea," James said, stretching. "The duel was kinda-"

"Strenuous?" I filled in.

"Yeah, let's go with that," James said, tapping Sirius and plodding out of the bathroom. He looked dead tired. Maybe "_a nap_" really just meant "a nap."

"You guys are gonna be sleeping, that leaves me a couple hours," I said casually. "I have an essay I need to get done-"

"No. You sleep too. Marauders never do essays, and the only thing you can do while we sleep is sleep. I hope you're not too wired for a nap." I groaned. "You can share with anyone you want, or sleep on the floor." Damn! I'm napping _in their dormitories!_ I'd get a bit more colorful with my language but I'm actually not sure what might happen if someone finds this and reads it… I don't know why I'm writing it, really. Remus says he wants it for a Bet Log. To make sure we're really following the rules. He's got Sirius and James writing them too, thank God.

"Trust me, she won't be sleeping," Sirius said, winking. I glared.

I hate the Marauders.

**JamesPOV: **

I don't really remember much, after Lily gave Sirius and me a death glare. I just zoned out. Lily slept on the floor, in the corner. I woke up about three hours later, and pretty much just pulled on a T-shirt and stumbled over to Sirius' bed.

"Get up," I mumbled, pushing the lump under the covers. "Jesus, Sirius, we have five minutes until we're supposed to sort Potions with Slughorn!" Sirius shot up, ramming his head into my mouth. I felt the blood run through my teeth.

"Damn it," Sirius and I mumbled at the same time. Sirius threw on whatever clothes were nearest to his bed and thumped Remus. Sirius clomped downstairs to the Common Room as I shook Lily, trying to wake her up and keep her sleeping at the same time.

I swear, this girl is going to be mine, one way or another.

Lily started, glancing at her watch from what I guess is habit. "Damn," she said, getting up and running her hands through her hair. With that accomplished, I left Peter sleeping and rushed down the dungeons with Lily on my heels.

When I got there, Slughorn was lying under his desk in the corner, clutching a very expensive, very _empty_ bottle of wine. "Potter, m'boy, how's your toe!" he roared. I raised my eyebrows at Sirius over in the corner. He shrugged.

"Fine, Sir," I said, slipping into a seat. "It's… been… hanging out on my foot, right as rain."

"Wonderful! And you, Black? How's the big footsy-wootsy?"

"Sir, I don't think it's a good time for us to serve this detention, seeing as you've clearly gotten drunk," Lily piped up as Sirius moved to speak.

"My footsy-wootsy is quite fine, although its daughter Mootsy-Lootsy does have strep throat-"

"Well then you must get her to the new nurse Madame Pomfrey right away then!" Slughorn interjected. He then turned to Lily. "Oh, yes, I might have had seven glasses of wine too many. It takes six to get me drunk, you see." He gave a watery chuckle. "Yes, you may go. Seeing as it's my fault you can't serve it, consider it done, Miss Evans." Make that Mrs. Potter, please. That's a dream come true.

Sirius looked gleefully at me, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. Lily shot him a glare and he made an attempt to look bored. We made our way out of the dungeons without saying a word. I was petrified Slughorn would change his mind and make us come back to pick out an armadillo's pointer finger from its ring finger. Does it really make the potion any different?

"So what do we do now?" Lily asked, glancing warily at Sirius. I yawned.

"Sleep," I said, putting a hand over my mouth. "Getting tortured really takes it out of some people, and I don't want to have to wake up until late tomorrow."

"Late tomorrow?" Lily said, sounding worried. "You don't mean to say we're skipping class?"

"Nah, that's for Tuesdays," Sirius said. "But I really am curious as to what Prongs is hinting about, and I'm not talking to him until he tells me what he knows."

"Sirius-" I started, about to tell him he was acting like a five year old. I know he's never going to grow up, but does he have to grow _down_?

"Moony, tell Potter I'm not talking to him until he tells me what's going on," Sirius pouted.

"You got that?" Remus asked me. I nodded. Remus turned back to Sirius.

"Tell him I'm going up to the dormitory. I'll let him tell me there." Remus glanced at me again. I stalked up the stairs.

"Not if I get there first!" Lily rolled her eyes so hard I thought they would pop. "If you keep doing that, they'll get stuck up there," I told her grinning. It's what Mum always tells me when I sulk. So far, I've still got the infamous Marauder grin going for me.

"Oh, you're going down!" Sirius yelled. I stopped, a triumphant smile on my face. "Remus! Tell Potter I said that!" I raced up the stairs and to the dormitory, beating Sirius by a long shot.

"It's Dumbledore's birthday," I told a panting Sirius. "He's giving us the day off, and he wants the Quidditch Final then, as a celebration. It's his hundredth."

Sirius looked stricken. "And you didn't tell me this _because?_"

"I dunno, he wanted it to be a surprise? He only told me 'cause I'm Captain, and he said I needed fair warning. Told me not to tell anyone." I glanced at the door as Remus strolled in, followed by an annoyed looking Lily.

"The barmy old codger throws a surprise party for everyone else on his birthday!" Sirius said, running his hands through his hair. "With the Finals to go along with it. Man, I've gotta rest up!" Sirius pulled off his shirt. Lily coughed, looked annoyed. I saw the smile playing on her lips.

"You might want to wait until I've gone out," she told him pointedly.

"Nah," he said, stripping down to his boxers and plopping down on his bed. "Why? This bother you?"

"If it didn't, we'd have a problem," Lily retorted, throwing a pillow at him. "And no, that was not an invitation for a pillow fight, perv."

"Aww," Sirius pouted, flopping under his covers. I pulled my shirt off, assuming Lily was gone.

Sirius whistled. I turned to face him, wondering what was up. I found Lily, her face almost as red as her hair. I couldn't help but smile at the look on her face.

"Oh!" she squeaked, running out into the hall.

"She jokes around with me, and does that to you," Sirius said, popping out from under his covers. "Mate, I think our little Bambi has a crush!"

"Shut up," I mumbled. Remus raised his eyebrows at me. Even Peter was trying to look at me funny, and failing miserably.

I lay down on the creaky old four-poster I'd been sleeping in for nearly seven years. I can't pinpoint why, exactly, but I was feeling all glowy inside. Strike that. I know exactly why I was feeling glowy.

Damn, what Lily Evans can do to a man. I'm just glad this time she's making me feel sappy instead of making me feel like crap. It's a pleasant change.

**I am oh so sorry about making you guys wait… and this is kind of a filler chapter, since next one's going to feature the match, and the after-party and all that jazz. And you'll see some Lily/James action and some SiriusPOV. Promise. I'm just not in the Sirius mood after Christmas. I've got the blues, and James is the perfect character to channel that into, don't you think? Man, I really do feel mellow. Plus, it's 2012. All y'all better find an escape route for when the Earth blows up… I booked myself a spaceship to Pluto with NASA (because Pluto IS a planet! IT IS!). I suggest you find something similar ;P**

**Well, I hope you like the chapter… and have a jolly Christmahannakwanzaa (tuck everyone in bed… Shroom7). Peace out. Home dawg skittely bizcut. I'm channeling my inner 2005, back when that was "cool."**

**And now I'm ranting. Hope you guys had a happy holiday. Like I said, Jolly Christmahannakwanzaa to you all. Hope Santa was generous and Hannukah delivered. And to be honest, Kwanzaa is really a mystery to me… anyone care to enlighten poor Emullz?**

**Question of the chapter (well, actually, there's two): 1: Have any of you ever seen White Collar? ** **IT IS AMAZING. I WANT TO BE JUST LIKE EITHER NEAL CAFFREY OR JONES WHEN I GROW UP. Or Alex… not Kate. She got dead :(**

**And 2: Who's your favorite Sesame Street character? I personally have to go with Suffalupakiss (or however you spell it) Oscar the Grumpy Trash Guy, Ernie, or of course Elmo… I dunno why I'm asking, I just kinda wanna know…**

**Press the review button. Answer my questions. Pretty please? With a cherry on top? Come on. Press it. If you dare… There. Now there's some mystery. NOW will you press it?**

**Fine, if you're too busy, you can wait a little. But reviews are like Swedish chocolate. If you've had some, you know what I mean. **

**This AN is WAAAAAAY too long. And my fingers are cramping. I'm done now.**

**~Emullz**


	14. Worlds Biggest Waffle

**SiriusPOV:**

When you wake up on a Monday morning to an alarm in your ear telling you to get up even when you know school is going to be cancelled in the first place, it kind of sucks royal hippogriff, if you catch my drift. I mean, I charmed it so it sounds like some barmy American redneck screaming at me to get the hell up.

I'll admit, it wasn't my best idea. And I'm very much hoping that when I get up I'll remember to reverse that spell and make it sound like a regular alarm clock, but I've been forgetting since fifth year, so I'm kind of positive that I'll forget to remember and I'll wake up to some American prat screaming in my face. I'm pretty sure whoever recorded this waterlogged the microphone as well, considering I can sniff- well, hear, if you want to get literal- out a spitter in three seconds flat. It's been proven. By me, when I was seven, so I wouldn't exactly call it trustworthy. Then again, if I proved it right now most people wouldn't call it trustworthy. I don't have a clue why.

"GET YOUR LAZY ASS OUT OF THAT BED!" I groaned and rolled over, pulling my pillow on top of my head. Guess what? That doesn't help at all.

"IF YOU DON'T GET UP I'LL-" I struck out instantly, punching the snooze button and breaking the damn thing to bits. I always fix it before bed anyways.

"Real nice," a voice said from the closet. I started.

"God, Bambi, tone it down with the sneaking around guys bedrooms. What are you doing, watching us sleep?"

"It's the only time of day when I can stand you," Lily joked lightly, sending the shoe she was levitating straight at my head. I ducked without thinking.

"Nice try, Lils, but I've been dodging bludgers since age five," I replied. "Well, if you don't count that one I didn't dodge and cracked my head open, but that's just a simple matter of-"

"Cleaning the wound using a simple scourgify, enchanting it closed and applying powdered Curation plants slightly watered down using a cool cloth," Lily spat out breathlessly.

"I was going to say that it was either get hit or fly into a tree, but sure, that works too," I said skeptically. "What are you, Madame Pomfrey's shadow?"

"I want to be a Healer," Lily said, leaning her head back onto the wall. Her eyes glazed over. "You know, help all those people that go through St. Mungo's, make them better."

I was about to snort derisively, that kind of snort that's like "you-seriously-buy-into-that-cliché?" Before I could, though, James jerked upright.

"Holy shit!" he burst out, sweat beading on his face. "I have to- oh."

"Hi," Lily said. "I was supposed to be here at 5:45. The rules didn't change just because it's a weekday."

"Oh. I just- yeah, I should probably get ready for the match- Sirius, can I- other room?" James stuttered. I grinned.

"Um- yeah- sure- okay- why not?" I stuttered back, glancing at Remus. "MOONY, UP! WATCH BAMBI!" I pushed him out of bed and didn't stay to see how hard he hit the floor. I hopped up on the bathroom sink as James shut the door.

"Does she like me?" James asked breathlessly, leaning against the door and running his hand through his hair.

"No, she just turns Quaffle-Red whenever I mention anything about you," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You're wrong, she hates me. I had this dream, and she-"

"It was a dream, man! You think this bet thing isn't working, but it's only been, what, 2 days? And she's already falling for you!"

"BREAKFAST!" I heard Pete yell from the dorm.

"Listen, Prongs. It's breakfast, I'm hungry, and I am not going to listen to you yell about how one of the hundreds of girls at school likes you actually doesn't like you. I'm getting some French toast and kicking some Slytherin ass. If you'd like to join me, go ahead." I stopped short, not slamming the door in the awesomely awesome dramatic way I planned. "Hey, Prongs, I was thinking- we never broke that world record…"

"Out!" James shouted, running his hand through his hair. God, I remember the time that we were convince we could get a world record, get into that barmy American book. Why do I keep bringing up barmy Americans?

Anyways, James and I managed to let 207 chickens loose in the Great Hall, going for "Most Number Of Chickens Used In A Prank Involving Food Related Products." We just ended up loosing because we forgot to get proof and getting detention every Friday, Wednesday and Sunday for a month. With Filch.

I grinned, dashing out of the bathroom and rushing down the hall, with nothing but French Toast on my mind. But as I got down the stairs, I felt one of those really great ideas I get like once every twenty seconds sprout in my head- only this one was WAY awesomer than all the others.

Except for that one when I convinced Wormy that this Hufflepuff girl he had the hots for (honestly, Hufflepuff?) was REALLY into Dracula and I had him dressing like a vampire to impress him for a week and a half. Good times.

But this plan? Pure. Genius.

**JamesPOV:**

I can't believe Sirius brought up the Chicken Incident again. We didn't even get our damn faces in the book! And all I wanted to do was meet the lady with the toenails and ask her how she wore shoes…

"James, come down to breakfast!" Lily shouted from the dormitory. I almost sprinted out of the bathroom. I'm such a hopeless jackass.

"I don't eat before matches," I told her as I clomped down the stairs. "I spend the whole time trying to get the other kids on the team to eat. Especially Rogers." Rogers is this nervous kid that's wet his pants during a match at least seven times, and he's only played about six matches. But he's got great reflexes, and when he's not hanging onto his broom for dear life he's a splendid Keeper.

"Well today you're eating something, because I can't have you losing. That means I have to mope with you guys, and I hate moping." Lily grinned up at me, making my heart beat a little faster.

"Oh, it's Slytherin. We'll be playing plenty dirty, and when we play like that there's nothing stopping us." We walked the rest of the way in silence, sliding on to the bench next to Sirius.

"I've got an idea!" Sirius called around the eggs in his mouth and the blonde practically on his lap. "Why don't we try for the worlds longest plush penguin?"

"Sirius, you are NOT trying for another record! Do you remember what happened last time?" Lily scolded. The blonde glared at her, apparently feeling threatened or something. "Oh, go jump in a ditch, Hillary," Lily snapped.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "Hillary Hanson, 6th year. She's always hanging out in my dormitory and trying to find the love potion I'm supposedly feeding you when she's not shagging every guy she can get her hands on."

"Sounds like a real bitch," I commented absently, trying to think about the match and grabbing a bit of toast. "Here comes Rogers," I told Lily. "Be right back."

I gave the kid my usual speech about how he'd better eat something or he would have bad vision on the field. That usually scares him and his double-prescription glasses into eating at least an orange for fear his vision'll get worse and he'll go blind.

He honestly sounds like he's going to lose the match for me.

"Hey Prongs," Sirius said cheerfully, Hillary gone. I slid in next to Remus, afraid if I sat next to Lily the fact that I'm sweating and a nervous wreck would make her think I'm terrible at Quidditch and probably going to get my ass kicked.

That sounded a lot better in my head.

"James!" A little kid squeaked as he ran up to our table. How the squirt knew my name I've got no idea. "Jenson and Cadwallader are sick! Madame Pomfrey says that they can't play in the match!"

"How do you know about the match?" Sirius asked the kid as a bunch of curses rang out in my head. How the hell were we going to win this match if two of our Chasers were out?

"Dumbledore announced it!" The kid squealed in response. "Listen, you'd better find someone, because I don't think any of my friends are rooting for the Slytherins!" Damn kid, telling me what to do!

"Lily," I said suddenly, my face splitting into a grin. "Your friend- McKinnon? Do you think she would play for me on such short notice?"

Lily nodded. "I also know a Fifth Year- Timothy Spinnet. He's quite good, from what I've heard."

"He was at the tryouts!" Sirius said excitedly. "I wanted him, but you picked that other weird girl with the braid-"

"Ward is not weird, she's an excellent player," I growled.

"And I had another idea for the record thing- biggest licorice wand," Sirius said, sliding off his bench.

"No." I said abruptly, starting towards the door. "I'm going to the lockers- Remus, can you send down Spinnet? Lily, will you try to talk some sense into McKinnon?" They both nodded, and I grinned- things were back on track.

"I've got it! Worlds biggest waffle!" Sirius shouted.

"How would we make it?" I asked incredulously.

"Worlds biggest waffle maker!" Sirius crowed. "Two in one!"

"No." I stepped out onto the grounds, feeling the wind on my face and glancing at the sun. My eyes met cloud cover. Dark, black cloud cover.

"Worlds strongest cup of tea," Sirius kept on. "We could get the biggest cup we could find, and get as many teabags as we could fit in there, the strongest brand, and then wait for three days and get the officials-"

"No." The first drop slashed on my face as I stepped quickly into the locker room and tapped my locker with my wand. The door sprang open.

"Most amount of money stolen from a parking meter without using magic!" Sirius crowed, throwing his shirt into the corner where we kept all the stuff he left in there. "First we'd have to feed it about a thousand galleons, then break the thing with a hammer and run off with it all!"

"No." I pulled on my jersey and charmed my glasses to deflect rain, doing the same to each hand. No need to have the Snitch slipping out because of stupid storm.

"Worlds smallest pair of pants?" Sirius asked, holding up his shrunken jeans in the corner. It was fun to watch them get smaller and smaller, that time I found them after practice.

"No." I heard the door open, and sure enough, in filed Rogers, Chandler, Trinder, and Ward, followed closely by a panting Spinnet.

"Do you really mean that I can play in this game?" he asked breathlessly, at the same time Sirius started to talk about the worlds longest nonstop sheep shearing.

"Yes," I told Spinnet, and Sirius' face lit up. "NO!" I barked at him. "Stop talking about the damn records and get ready for the game!"

"I can see you've already got worlds most crotchety Quidditch Captain," Sirius grumbled. Trinder snorted, pulling her dark, braided hair up into a ponytail.

"All right, guys, you know what we need to do? We need to win. And I know that-"

"Cu the shitty pep talk, Potter, we all know we're going to kick some ass, and the only way we're gonna do it is if we go warm up a little," McKinnon said sharply, strutting into the locker room like she owned the place.

"Nice to see you could join us," I told her, grinning. "You can sit next to Black while we go over our strategies."

"No wa-" I raised my eyebrows.

"You want to play or not?" McKinnon glared and plopped down next to Sirius.

"We're going to play like we've never played before. This may very well be my last game. I want to make it memorable. And I want to win, even if we don't catch the snitch. Which they won't, don't worry. Black, Trinder, I want you to break every one of their brooms. Spinnet, Ward, McKinnon, I want you scoring goals like there's no tomorrow. And Rogers- I want the score to be 1,000 to ten. Gives you a little wiggle room." Rogers smiled weakly.

"Let's get out there and KICK SOME SLYTHERIN ASS!" Sirius roared. "Ooh! Most amount of shepherds pie someone can eat in two minutes!"

"No!" I called over my shoulder as I walked out onto the Quidditch Pitch.

It's game time.

**Yeah, yeah, it's been like a month. I'M SORRY! If you stopped reading, I can't blame you. I've done that plenty.**

**But, you know, there was the Super Bowl (GO GIANTS!)**

**And, of course, the ending to this chapter sucked, but I felt like I needed to update so I cut it short. 15 and 16 are going to come BAMBAM, so yeah….**

**And I need help- do you have any ideas about the outcome of the Quidditch game?**

**The three R's, guys- READING WRITING 'RITHMATIC! Just kidding… read, review, rub some lotion onto your dry hands. Very random. I just needed a third R.**

**Toodles!**

**~Emullz**


	15. Cliche Heaven

**JamesPOV: **

I heard the whistle and kicked off. Hard. The glint of the snitch just being released from the box made me grin. If I caught that thing, the party Sirius threw was going to be WICKED. And Lily has to come or else… well, as Sirius so nicely puts it: "pucker up, Prongs!"

I held myself back. The one time I caught it just seconds after it was released, totally reflexively, the game was a huge letdown. Even the Gryffindor's couldn't muster enough enthusiasm for a party. Nobody did anything to help with the victory. The Captain sat me for not being a team player and used the reserve Seeker. Needless to say, we got pummeled (by Hufflepuff, no less) and I learned my lesson.

This time, though, I needed a party, because if there was a party, there was party games- and party games meant snogging, and Sirius has been rigging the games for years. If we play, Lily has to play- and Sirius can make sure that I get lucky.

And I can't go one more day without kissing that girl. You kiss her once, and it's like a drug- and I'm an addict. I understand why she hasn't had a boyfriend since Amos Diggory last year. The poor boy got addicted and wouldn't leave her alone, and she dumped him.

Then again, I did push him up against the wall and tell him that if he didn't make her dump him so that she wasn't hurt I would kick his sorry little ass all the way to America.

"And McKinnon scores!" I caught, startling my into circling the field. I saw the Snitch darting around the Slytherin Goal Posts, but I waited for their Seeker. If he didn't see it, I wasn't going for it. McKinnon's head was big enough, and her being the only scorer wasn't going to deflate it.

It seems hypocritical that I'm talking about big heads, I get it, but last year Sirius split my head open with a toy lamb that he was trying to transfigure into a sword that he threw across the room in frustration. Apparently he halfway managed, and I was in the Hospital Wing for three days. Lily didn't visit. All the hot air rushed out.

"Wow, for not even a reserve Chaser, McKinnon sure is making a splash with three scores so far to Slytherin's zero, only leaving one of Gryffindor's scores to Spinnet, who is also not even a reserve- Potter clearly made some bad choices about players this year!"

I whirled my broom around and yelled "SHUT UP, YOU PRAT!" Then, I'm not ashamed to admit, I raised two fingers to him and flew the other way. "I LIKE MY PLAYERS!"

"Potter!" McGonagall cried into the microphone. "Detention! And see me after the match!"

"Only to be expected, Professor!" I called back, zooming around the bend to give Rogers the thumbs up as I passed.

I glanced over at the stand and managed to find a giggling Lily, glancing at McGonagall.

Sirius interrupted my- well, I wouldn't exactly call it stalking- by screaming "YO PRONGS!" I instinctively rolled, just barely dodging the bludger that shot over me a hit the Slytherin Beater square in his swinging arm.

"Sorry, mate, you were in my way!" Sirius called.

"Anytime, Pads!" I replied, giving him a high-five as we passed each other.

I know, I know, it's an odd way to play Quidditch. But when you're zooming around looking for a teeny tiny golden thing with wings and your friend is running around whacking evil metal balls at you with a club- well, it sounds quite hard. And also quite crazy, which is why Sirius and I act like it's our own personal, you know, Best-Mate-Hang-Out-And-Attempted-Murder Time. The crowd loves it, and it keeps us pumped. And keeps the Slytherins confused.

The rest of the game passed in a blur of- well, how else can I put it- awesome. As soon as I made that first comment, it was like Sirius and I were on fire. We're like that Muggle comic book- Spiderman. We throw out jokes as we beat the crap out of people.

It's a gift.

I think Sirius stole Chandler's bat at one point and started to juggle. Then I almost got hit by a Bludger and had to yell at him. But it was pretty cool, I have to admit.

I finally decided that the Snitch was worth catching. We were up by 50 points, and the game was getting ugly. Sirius and I had stopped with the antics and I even had to help get the Quaffle in the hoop a couple times. I slammed into one of Slytherin's Chaser's and he almost fell, and McKinnon fouled one of their Beaters when it was slam into him or slam into the stands, and she hit him so hard he was holding onto his broom with one hand.

I saw the Snitch, and I decided it was time. I dove.

The Slytherin Seeker caught on quick, I'll give him that, but it was no contest. Quidditch has always been easy for me, I had the Snitch in my hand no problem.

Or so I thought. But somehow, a Slytherin player managed to hook his foot underneath my hand so that I was hanging from the broom by two fingers. I held on tight and kept zooming towards the Snitch. It darted in tiny zigzags, just inches above my hand. I knew that when the Seeker caught up with me, he would be able to reach it. So I swung my leg up and kicked the Snitch down to my level, grabbing it triumphantly and jumping off my broom.

"YO PADS!" I bellowed, signaling Sirius to catch me on his broom. He managed to get over in time and I hopped off as soon as we got close enough to a broom.

The first thing I did was make my way over to Professor McGonagall about the- well, let's call it _profanity_- on the field.

"Oh, Potter. Amazing catch, if I must say. Slytherin deserves a talking to for that foul-"

"I must be going Professor- I'll serve the detention tomorrow at seven," I told her. "And I may be a little late, I have a practice scheduled."

"That's just fine, Potter, whatever you need to do to keep the cup in my office." McGonagall rushed off to talk to Slughorn, evidently rubbing his loss in his face. I grinned. Tomorrow's Potions lesson wasn't going to be the most fun.

"PARTAY!" Sirius crowed, wrapping a Gryffindor banner around my shoulders and escorting me up to the dormitories. "I even managed to sneak in enough Firewhiskey to spike the Butterbeer!"

I braced myself for the usual onslaught of cheers that came when the Portrait Hole opened, and I got a little more than I bargained for. Somehow, Sirius had managed to get some Hufflepuffs in there, and let me tell you, Hufflepuffs are PARTY ANIMALS. Let me tell you, Hufflepuffs seem sweet and nice and kind, but when you pair a Hufflepuff with a Firewhiskey- damn, you're gonna have some fun!

And Sirius doesn't just throw parties. He throws PARTAYS. They're a special kind of party that Sirius manages to make totally and completely memorable. I can recall about 69 PARTAYS right now, and the specific awesome thing that happened at each one. It's amazing. There was one PARTAY where a Hufflepuff got in a chicken suit and battled Sirius dressed in a teddy bear suit, and then they put on football cleats and had a moonwalking-with-cleats contest.

There was also the time when we made deodorant bouquets and then used the aerosol cans as air conditioner on that super hot day in Third Year and made Yolanda Kerwood faint because she's allergic to Axe.

And the time when Sirius decided that his PARTAYS were getting too boring so he transformed a baby carrot into a baby alligator and we set in loose in the toilet. You could hear people screaming about getting bit every five minutes. Sirius calls it the "Bit-Bum Incident." The teachers haven't figured out why kids were showing up at the Hospital Wings my the dozens with cuts on their butts that needed to be healed. We never did get the alligator out, and I'm pretty sure it's full-grown and living in the pipes of the school now.

And then there was the PARTAY where nothing awesome happened. That's the most memorable one, actually. That one, and the first time Sirius managed to sneak in Firewhiskey. That was a good one.

But this one seemed a little off. Everything was fine, and it was a usual PARTAY- well, the awesome hadn't hit yet, but that usually didn't happen until at least midnight- but I kept looking over at Lily, leaning against the wall in the corner and looking as if she'd rather be anywhere else but there.

I decided that she wasn't going to ruin this night. We were going to play party games, she was going to kiss me, and then I was going to skip the first class tomorrow trying to find a way to get Sirius to stop looking so hungover.

"Hey, Prongs! I got another idea for the world record!" Sirius crowed, detaching himself from yet another poor, sad girl who didn't have anything better to do.

Then I processed the message. Shit. Doesn't he have anything better to do than harass me all night.

"Most Idiotic PARTAY Attender. Come on, get off the wall and come have some fun!" I looked at myself on the wall as Sirius got dragged back into the crowd. I was leaning on the wall exactly like Evans was, and I finally realized why. This was my last Quidditch Match. If we lost to Slytherin, we would've had to go head to head with them again. Going out on the field, I'd thought that it wasn't the last, since it was originally scheduled for later this month. But it was the last game that I would ever play at Hogwarts.

The sad truth is, ever since I made the team in Third Year, I thought I'd be playing Quidditch for Gryffindor for longer than I could imagine. Four years seems like a long time to a thirteen year old, and this year, I realized that it was going to be over, but I just kept pushing the idea away. It wasn't supposed to end, I wasn't supposed to stop playing. Quidditch was supposed to go on forever.

"Lily!" I called, pushing through the crowd to find her, and grabbing her hand. "I hate this party, let's go outside." I pulled her out of the portrait hole and into the hallway, catching Sirius talking smugly to Remus and gesturing towards us.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked, eyebrows knitting together. I noted with satisfaction that she didn't look mad, exactly, just kind of surprised and suspicious.

"Well, it wasn't exactly pleasant in there, was it?" I said, not wanting to let go of her hand, but knowing that if I held it any longer she'd pull away, and I'd be back to square one.

"Oh, please," Lily told me, laughing. "You love those things! Every time anything remotely important happens, Sirius throws a party and you're right in the thick of the 'action.' I've never seen you duck out before."

I thought of asking her why she was watching me during the PARTAYS but I thought that would just make her glare at me, and so far I'd been glare free for about a minute and a half. I didn't want to push my luck. "This one's different. Come on, I have something to show you."

"Oh, this is _so_ cliché," I heard her mutter as I grabbed her hand once more and pulled her through the hallways.

"So you'd rather head back to the PARTAY?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Lead on," she told me dryly as we stepped out onto the grounds. "I didn't bring a coat," she told me, glancing around and rubbing her arms.

"And I won't lend you mine, seeing as that's too cliché for you," I told her, zipping up my jacket and laughing at the look she gave me.

"Just hand it over," Lily tackled me, ripping off my coat and pulling it over he shoulders. I tugged on my T-shirt, trying to get the red fabric to stop clinging to my chest so that Lily wouldn't call me an egotistical prat who only cares about my muscles. I've learned to be careful.

"You don't have to do that with your shirt. I only said that because you were flexing your muscles in my face." Lily told me, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "Now where are we going again?" Honestly, is that girl a mind reader or something?

"Right this way," I said, leading her to the Quidditch Pitch. "My favorite place out of all the places in Hogwarts."

"Not your room?" Lily asked me, scuffing her feet around in the grass.

"Sirius lives in there. Even though the House Elves use as much perfume as humanly- well, elf-ily- possible, it still reeks of Sirius Goo."

"Sirius Goo?" Lily asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Wherever Sirius goes, he leaves something behind. We've classified it as Sirius Goo." I smiled, thinking of the Goo Sirius had left on Lily. She certainly didn't mind it anymore.

"Ew. So why are we here, besides the fact that you love the Quidditch Pitch, of all places?" Lily said, looking expectantly up at me for an answer.

"I'm taking you flying," I told her, grinning. "I've never seen you on a broomstick. It's time to branch out."

Lily squealed. "The whole purpose for me not being on a broomstick is so that I don't fall off and kill myself!"

"Well, I'll be on the broomstick as well, so there won't be any dying on my watch." And there'll be plenty of loop-the-loops, I added silently. Lily seemed to see it in my eyes.

"The first time we go up, there will be NO fancy stuff, all right? We stay horizontal, and we fly around the pitch once. Then you put me down." Lily gazed sternly at me.

"All right, Professor," I told her, running to grab my broom from the locker room. "I'll put you down _as soon _as we're done!" I suddenly noticed that she said _first time_. Like I was gonna get to take her flying another time after this. She thought that we were going to go flying- _again_.

"So I just kind of- get on?" Lily asked as I brought back the broom. She straddled it awkwardly between her legs.

"Didn't you take flying lessons in First Year?" I asked. She nodded grimly, causing me to chuckle. "I'm going to get on in front. Hold on tight, all right? I'll do the steering."

"I'm going to fall off," Lily said, not nervously, just simply stating a fact. She sounded as if she was answering a question in Charms or something.

"I'll catch you," I stated just as matter-of-factly.

"Promise?" Lily asked, sounding as if she'd rather be anywhere else.

"Promise," I replied, pushing off the ground with my feet and hearing her gasp in front of me, and then she was gripping my waist so tightly that I thought I might die of suffocation.

"Hey, Lil? You might want to let the person who's keeping you from falling off the broom get a little air here," I said, my voice strained. She loosened her grip immediately. "You want to go down, don't you."

"Please?" she squeaked. I simply flew higher. "James Potter, put me down this instant!"

"All right," I told her, dropping into a Wronski Feint and making her shriek. I pulled up, circling, and laughing at the way she gasped in air.

"I'm getting off now."

"I'm not letting you."

"I'm getting off _now_."

"I'm _not_ letting you."

"I'm not kidding."

"I'm not either."

"One… two… three… now!"

To my horror, Lily rolled off the broom and plummeted towards the ground. Without hesitating a second, I pushed the handle down, not even wondering how I was going to keep from smashing into the ground if I missed. Lily was falling, and I promised I'd catch her when she did.

"Oof!" she grunted, hitting the broom in front of me. "That hurt."

"No," I gasped sarcastically, landing. "What did you do that for! I could've missed!"

"But you didn't," Lily told me, smiling. "You promised you'd catch me. If you didn't, there'd be hell to pay." Lily Evans trusted ME of all people to catch her when she fell of a broomstick 100 feet in the air? I felt like I was on Cloud Nine.

"So why'd you take me flying, anyways? It is a kind of cliché thing to do. Whenever somebody wants to have people kiss in novels, they always do something where the girl has to hold onto the boy, and the boy makes the girls' life depend on her. Like on a motorcycle."

"What's a motorcycle?" I asked. She's always coming up with these weird words that she uses in examples, and I never understand what the hell is going on.

"Never mind. Just- why the flying?" Lily looked like she actually wanted to hear the answer, not just that she was hoping I might bore her to death so she wouldn't have to talk to me anymore.

"You know how this year- we're all going to be going away this summer, and we won't be coming back. Everybody's known that for at least seven years. But- it still doesn't seem real." I took a deep breath. "And Quidditch is my favorite thing about this place. It's what I'm good at. But that was my last game."

"Aren't you going to play, in a league, I mean?" Lily asked, sitting down on the grass, and tugging me down next to her. "Everybody says that you could get into any league you want, and just play all your life. You'd never need a job or anything."

I sat down, folding my legs underneath me awkwardly. "Yeah, but I don't just want to play Quidditch. There's a war going on, and however much we pretend that there isn't a war when we're at Hogwarts, we all know what's happening outside our little bubble."

"And we all want to do something meaningful with our lives, I get it. That's why I want to be a Healer." Lily sighed. "I'm actually a stickler for clichés. I'm doing this because I can't save any of the people that I love, and maybe if I save total strangers that'll account for something. At least make up for part of what I screwed up."

"I don't think anyone thinks you screwed up," I told her, cringing once it was out of my mouth. I honestly don't understand why people think girls like me so much. It's like, they think I'm hot or something, but then I totally blow it with some cheesy pickup line that makes me sound like someone from a- yup, you guessed it!- stupid romance novel.

"Trust me, I screw up like twice a day." Lily looked at me sideways. "And I'm sure you screw up about once a month."

"Have you met me?" I asked her. "With me, it's never even been 6 impossible things before breakfast, it's been 42 impossible things that make the whole world hate you in that tiny little space when you're half up and waiting for your alarm clock to go off!"

"Then maybe I can tolerate you," Lily said, leaning over and putting her head on my shoulder.

"I can't tell you how long I've waited to hear that," I said, solely for the purpose of hearing her laugh. I hadn't heard it in a while.

And suddenly, hearing her laugh, I couldn't help it. I kissed her. And, after a second, she kissed me back.

Then my mind exploded. This time, it was of her own free will. She was kissing be back! She said she would "tolerate" me. From Lily, that was like hearing that she loves me. And then there was the fact that I was snogging Lily Evans, and she was a surprisingly good kisser given the number of boys I've scared off over the years. And God, all these years I've dreamed about kissing this girl, and I've never imagined that it would feel so- well, tingly. I always thought it would be awesome, and for a while in the beginning I though that I'd be triumphant, but it's not anything I've ever felt with any other girl I've kissed.

She pulled away, and my heart broke a little.

"I have to go…" Lily stood up and ran off in the direction of the castle.

Me? I sat there, sitting in the middle of the Quidditch Pitch with my broom next to me and, for the first time in my life, no desire whatsoever to fly up to the stars. I was already there.

**Damn. This thing is LONG. This is probably the longest chapter I've ever written. So enjoy. Next chapter up in at the most a week.**

**THANKS FOR READING! I LOVE YOU ALL IF YOU STUCK WITH ME!**


	16. Queen of Routine

**LilyPOV:**

_August Fourth, 1971_

_Dear Diary,_

_Every time I write that, I feel cheesy. I swear, I have to give you a name or something, considering the fact that once Petunia gets her hands on this, she's going to have a field day._

_Except for the fact that just maybe she wouldn't be so happy about it anymore, probably just look for anything about Severus and mortify me by showing it to him. I tried to make up with her, but she thinks he's a big ball of slimy liar. Or, at least, I think that's what she said. I mostly just heard hissing. I think she's wrong, you know. Petunia's not the best judge of character, considering I caught her exchanging spit with Jimmy Timple behind the dumpster in the schoolyard. I honestly never thought Petunia would do such a thing, and with Jimmy Timple too! He's just so full of it! Petunia and I used to make fun of him and now look what she's gone and done. She's snogged the enemy._

_I would be less upset if this was the only thing she's been doing. I haven't talked to her properly since Severus talked to me in the park two weeks ago. It's just that everything's changing, diary, and I want it to stop! I don't like this, and I'm afraid of it all. Hogwarts sounds scary, and big, and it sounds like a lot of things could go wrong there._

_Oh, who am I kidding? It sounds magical, and I'm afraid I'm not magical enough to be there. If my life had stayed the same, instead of the whole thing changing in the blink of an eye, I'd be worrying about getting my summer maths packet done. _

_I wish that was all I'm worrying about. _

_Goodnight,_

_Lily_

I grinned, setting the old diary aside and realizing that I was a genius at age eleven. Then again, what kid isn't? As you grow older, you're slowly closing your mind to the possibilities. And it's simply awful.

_May Twenty-Third, 1975_

_Dear Diary,_

_It's been what, five years, and it still feels stupid every time I write that. The problem is, I don't want it to change. I'm a creature of regularity, I like knowing what's going to happen, who's the one that's going to always pass the potatoes when asked, and who's the one that'll just shovel more onto their plate. I just feel like a girl like me, the queen of routine, is the only one who gets the cruel joke played on them that life is constantly changing._

_I mean, shit, my best friend called me a- well, I'm not going to write it, but THAT word- this spring, after my mortal enemy and well known stalker pantsed him in front of my entire year. And I wish I could get my hands on a time turner, send myself to the past and fix all this! _

_Only I know that won't fix anything. I've been kidding myself for five years now. Nothing is magical when you're surrounded by the stuff. Everything has a root, a spell that makes it go. Nothing is spontaneous anymore, nothing is just a miracle. But boy, I remember when I was eleven, getting my letter and thinking that the world was a big ball of magic, and it was sparkly and golden and shining, and I was going to learn to do great things with it, and impress Petunia and Sev and I would show her tricks and she'd clap and laugh with us and tell us to do more, more!_

_I still have the wand I fashioned for myself, hidden in my room. I poured glitter and macaroni all over the thing, so that there's not a trace of that stick in sight. It's solid glue, glitter, pipe cleaners and pasta. I tried to set the drapes in the living room on fire with it. I just turned them orange. _

_The thing is, Severus isn't going to be doing magic tricks with me any time soon. And Petunia wouldn't enjoy them if we did. I won't be able to go back. The only thing I can do is go forward. But forward isn't looking so good right now, what with OWLS, and the whole Sev thing. And, of course, Potter is everywhere. _

_Then again, Potter is consistent. Predictable. His pranks aren't, however, and he's always coming up with new ways to ask me out, but I know he's going to and I know it's going to be cheesy, and I know he knows I'm going to say no. But he does it anyway._

_Well, it's late, and I'm tired. I've also got a 2-foot essay to write, and I'm done evaluating my life. I need to go evaluate the Draught of Living Death, if you'll excuse me._

_XOXO,_

_Lily_

My life is changing again. Only, this time, I can't bring myself to write about it. It's confusing, and I don't know what I'm doing. All I know is that Potter has turned into James, Black has turned into Sirius, and I have changed into Bambi.

More importantly, my heart has turned into one hell of a puzzle. And I've got to figure it out if I'm ever going to be okay with all this change.

But I know that one thing is going to stay the same. I'm always going to hate change. And no matter what, things are going to keep changing. And I'm going to have to learn to deal with it.

**I wrote this a while ago, and I've been trying to work up to it. It just kind of came out, and I want to do the same thing with James and Sirius, just because I love writing about people writing about themselves. It's a gift and a curse… but mostly a curse cause you can't write a whole story about people writing about themselves. It would be more like a biography… of a made up person. A FICTIONOGRAPHY! I just invented an era of fictionographies being the best this since sliced bread…**

**I'm just a smarticle particle =P**

**~Emullz**


	17. The Last

**SiriusPOV:**

I saw James walking with the flowers up to the common room. I stopped him, right then and there.

"Prongs- I know those are for Bambi- but, I have a question."

James, like he always did, stopped whatever he was doing, handed me whatever he was holding, and leaned against the wall. He's been doing that since we were eleven and I asked him if he wanted to prank the Slytherins in Charms that day. "Shoot," he answered, the smile playing on his lips.

"You kissed her?"

James nodded. "How'd you know?"

"I set it up," I told him, grinning madly. "The whole point was for you to notice her looking sad at the party and take her out to the Quidditch field and do whatever Prongs does to get the girl."

"You really did that for-" he started, but I cut him off.

"Here's your flowers, go get her and make her lose this stupid bet."

**JamesPOV: **

I didn't think that Sirius had it in him to do something like this.

Scratch that. He's always been making plans to "get me with Evans". I just didn't think he'd ever make a plan that would _work_. Then again, this was a plan to get me with Bambi.

I think that made all the difference.

**LilyPOV: **

When I saw the idiot walking towards me with the flowers in his hand and that stupid Potter grin on his face, I almost bolted. Then I remembered I had to stay with Remus and refused to move.

"Oh my God," Remus said, chuckling. "I've never seen you not run when he comes at you with flowers."

"It's been a while," I told him. "My reflexes are getting slower every day."

"Oh, I know what's going on," Remus said, chuckling. He backed out of the conversation easily, grabbing Peter by the arm and muttering "come on then, Wormy," under his breath.

"Hey, Bambi," James told me, grinning his face off.

"How's it going Prongs?" I replied, surprising even myself by using that ridiculous nickname.

"Oh, I've just had the best time of my entire life, even if it was cut short by reasons unknown to me," James replied cheerily. "And I found out that my best friend, even though he forgot my birthday, gave me the best present I could have hoped for, even if it was a bit late."

"Well I'm glad you're not feeling as mixed up as I am," I told James, envying his solid opinions on everything. He clearly works in black and white.

"Oh, I don't know why you would feel mixed up," James answered, that stupid grin that he always seems to have plastered on his face. "I'd think you'd do the right thing…"

"Oh, see that's the trouble. I don't know what the right thing is anymore," I answered, frowning slightly.

"That's where I come in," James said, his eyes sparkling mischeviously. "I know exactly what the right thing is."

And then he was kissing me, and I was kissing him, and I realized something- I had to play along with his bet for four more days.

But by then I had figured out that Remus was quiet and kind and always there for you, and that Sirius was unswervingly loyal and always there for a good laugh, and that even little Peter always seemed to crop up and make me smile, the dopey way he looked at the rest of the Marauders.

And then I knew that the stupid "Potter sneer" had turned into his honest-to-goodness adorable grin that I couldn't resist, and that his laugh didn't seem to be directed in malice anymore, and that the way he messed up his hair wasn't arrogance, it was a sort of defense mechanism, and that everything that used to annoy me seemed to be the most endearing things in the world now.

And I knew that Peter, Remus, Sirius, and James would never leave me. Peter would always be there, Remus would be the rock, Sirius would be the most annoying, hilarious son of a bitch you've ever met.

And James would always be James, that much was certain.

I didn't exactly mind finishing this bet up anymore.

Actually, I kind of did. I liked tangling my fingers in his hair, mostly because that meant we were kissing. I didn't want him to cut it all off. And locking us in a broom closet together didn't seem like such a bad thing.

"Hey James?" I asked, pulling away.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking stupid.

I decided to try something fun. "I turned Peter into a pickle."

"That's nice," he breathed, leaning in again.

"Seriously, you, wake up," I told him, pinching the back of his neck.

"Oi!" I glared a little bit. "I thought you liked me now!"

"That's very true," I said, winding my arms around his neck, "but that doesn't mean that I want to wake up at 5:30 every morning for the next four days."

"I'll have Sirius pick us out a nice broom closet," he grinned, kissing me again.

"Just promise me you won't cut all this off," I murmured against his lips. I ruffled his hair.

"Only if you promise to grow yours back, with magic. I miss tugging on it," James told me, ruffling mine as well.

"Fine. You're on cloud nine now, aren't you?" I accused, handing him my wand and raking a finger through my hair.

"Oh, don't flatter yourself," he chuckled, turning over one of my favorite phrases.

I found it hard to rid myself of my smile at his words.

Nothing had changed, and yet everything had. You just try and make sense of that.

**IT'S DONE. No, I'm not kidding. Like, legit done, considering my brain is wrung dry of Jily right now and I'm bleeding Legend of Korra right now. It's not even funny. Actually, it is. I quote like every six seconds. My family thinks I'm a freak, which I very much am.**

**So, I hope you enjoyed this wild, updateless ride with me, and I want to thank every single person who favorited, reviewed, or even alerted me… you guys made me feel like I'm at least getting there as an author. Y'know, that I'm not totally hopeless. All those who deserted me… I probably would've deserted me too, no hard feelings, thanks for at least attempting to stick with me, and I hope you enjoyed It's a Bet… **

**STORY COMPLETE**


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